Patent ID: 7643835

Claim:
A method for enabling a global positioning system (GPS) enabled computer device comprising a location discovery module, a distance calculation module, and a connections module to locate a nearest network resource for accessing stored data on a network, the network resource comprising a storage device, the method comprising: in response to receiving, by the computer device, a user request to access the stored data on the network, i) transmitting, by the location discovery module on the computer device, a request to one or more GPS satellites to obtain coordinates indicating a location of the computer device; ii) obtaining, at the computer device, a list of one or more network resources via which the requested stored data can be accessed, the one or more network resources configured to send the requested stored data to the computer device; iii) calculating, by the distance calculation module on the computer device, for each of the one or more network resources obtained from the list, a distance between the location of the computer device and location of the one or more network resources; iv) determining, by the connections module on the computer device, a response time for each network resource in a subset of network resources having a shortest calculated distance to the computer device; v) connecting, by the connections module on the computer device, one of the network resources having the shortest calculated distance and a shortest determined response time to the computer device; and vi) processing the user request by providing, at the computer device, access to the requested stored data that is sent to the computer device by the connected network resource having the shortest calculated distance and the shortest determined response time.