Enabling communications of electronic data between an information requestor and a geographically proximate service provider

• US 7,895,335 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2001
• Issued: 02/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AOL Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Watson, Richard A. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): EL CHANTI, HUSSEIN A
• Application Number:
  US09/893,693
• Publication Number:
  US 20020026517A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,525 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709227-228
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

Systems and methods for transferring electronic data comprising receiving a request to access a communications system at a first geographic location from a client located at a second geographic location remote from the first geographic location; identifying a proxy local to the client in the second geographic location; and receiving subsequent data requests from the client at the proxy.

Claims

1. A method for enabling electronic communications between the Internet and a client system comprising:

receiving, at a primary communications system configured to act as an access point to the Internet for data communications between the client system and the Internet, a request to access the Internet that is directed to the primary communication system, wherein the request is issued by an online identity operating the client system;

processing the request at the primary communication system;

identifying at the primary communication system, based on the processed request, a secondary communications system that is more optimally suited for providing Internet access to the client'"'"'s system than the primary communications system; and

enabling configuration of the client system to direct subsequent Internet access requests from the client system and to use the secondary communications system as an access point to the Internet for subsequent data communications between the client system and the Internet, such that the subsequent data communications between the client and the Internet pass through the secondary communications system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the request further comprises:

authenticating the online identity or the client system at the primary communications system.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising enabling configuration of the client system to direct data communications, which are subsequent to access from the client system, to the secondary communications system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein access to the Internet is granted to the client system by the primary communications system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein access to the Internet is granted to the client system by the secondary communications system.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising encapsulating data communications in a tunneling protocol at the secondary communications system.

7. The method of claim 3, further comprising determining whether responses to data communications can be satisfied by electronic data stored in a cache at the secondary communications system.

8. The method of claim 3, further comprising performing filtering of data communications at the secondary communications system.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the filtering is performed according to contents filtering.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the primary communications system is an online access provider.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the request further comprises determining a geographic location associated with at least one of the online identity and the client system, and wherein the geographic location is used as a basis for configuring the client system to direct subsequent Internet access requests from the client system.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the request further comprises accessing a demographic profile of the online identity.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the demographic profile includes client-preferred routing paths.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the demographic profile includes software version of the client system.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the demographic profile includes the type of communication equipment used for Internet access by the client system.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at a secondary communications system, subsequent data communications between the client and the Internet;

encapsulating subsequent data communications in an IP tunneling protocol at the secondary communications system; and

transmitting encapsulated data communications to the Internet using the IP tunneling protocol.

17. A method for enabling electronic communications with the Internet at a client system, comprising:

submitting a request to access the Internet that is directed to a primary communications system configured to act as an access point to the Internet for data communications between the client system and the Internet, wherein the request is issued by an online identity operating the client system;

receiving from the primary communications system, an indication of a secondary communications system that is more geographically proximate to the geographic location of the client system than the primary communications system;

reconfiguring the client system to submit future access requests to the secondary communications system based on the indication received;

submitting future requests to access the Internet from the client system to the secondary communications system; and

reconfiguring the client system to direct communications to the Internet, which are subsequent to access from the client system, to the secondary communications system.

18. A method for enabling electronic communications between a client and the Internet at a secondary communications system that is more geographically proximate to a geographic location of the client system than a primary communications system, comprising:

receiving, from a primary communications system configured to act as an access point to the Internet for data communications between the client system and the Internet, an indication to process requests to access the Internet that are issued by an online identity operating a client system, where the access requests are configured to enable access to the Internet;

based on the indication received, reconfiguring the secondary communications system to process requests to access the Internet from the client system; and

subsequent to Internet access by the client system through the secondary communications system, receiving data communications between the client system and the Internet at the secondary communications system.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising processing access requests at the secondary communications system.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein processing access requests further comprises:

authenticating the online identity or the client system at the primary communications system.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein access to the Internet is granted to the client system by the secondary communications system.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising encapsulating data communications in a tunneling protocol at the secondary communications system.

23. The method of claim 19, further comprising determining whether responses to data communications can be satisfied by electronic data stored in a cache at the secondary communications system.

24. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

receiving, from the primary communications system, a subscriber information related to the online identity operating the client system;

performing filtering of data communications between the client system and the Internet at the secondary communications system based on the received subscriber information.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the filtering is performed according to contents filtering.

26. The method of claim 24 wherein the subscriber information includes at least one of parental control settings of the online identity or user preferences of the online identity.

27. The method of claim 24 wherein the subscriber information includes a demographic profile of the online identity.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the demographic profile includes client-preferred routing paths.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the demographic profile includes software version of the client system.

30. The method of claim 27, wherein the demographic profile includes geographic location of the client system.