Patent ID: 7562152

Claim:
A communication system for limiting a transmission rate of transmitting data from a server to a requesting computer in response to a user's input, the communication system comprising: a means for accepting a user request for a specified data item at a requesting computer, the specified data item to be delivered in its entirety prior to being accessed; a means for accepting, at the requesting computer in response to accepting the user request for the specified data item, a user input speed setting, wherein the user input speed setting is not related to a speed that is associated with the specified data item; a means for generating, at the requesting computer in response to accepting the user input speed setting, a speed indication signal that comprises a maximum transmission rate to be used in transmitting the specified data item from the server to the requesting computer, wherein the maximum transmission rate is based upon the user input speed setting and is less than the data rate of the data link and less than the data rate capacity of the requesting computer; a means for receiving, at a server from the requesting computer, a request for the specified data item; a means for receiving from the requesting computer in conjunction with receiving the request for the specified data item, a speed indication signal; and a means for transmitting the specified data item from the server to the requesting computer, wherein the means for transmitting limits, at the server, an average rate while sending transmission of at least a portion of the specified data item across a data link from the server to the requesting computer to be not greater than the maximum transmission rate represented within the speed indication signal received from the requesting computer.