Patent ID: 7194521

Claim:
A method of operating a client that retrieves resources using HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) commands, the method comprising: parsing a domain name field for a telephone number that identifies a point-to-point HTTP server; comparing the parsed telephone number to one or more open telephone numbers identifying one or more open point-to-point HTTP connections; when an open telephone number matching the parsed telephone number does not exist, accessing a public-switched-telephone-network line; dialing, on the accessed line, the parsed telephone number for the point-to-point HTTP server; indicating that the client requests termination of the line as an HTTP connection to the point-to-point HTTP server; and establishing a link layer connection with the point-to-point HTTP server using physical addressing; interacting with the point-to-point HTTP server over the accessed line and over the established link layer connection using non-packetized HTTP protocol requests and responses without the necessity of an intervening packet-routing network; wherein interacting with the point-to-point HTTP server does not require connecting to an Internet Service Provider (ISP).