Patent ID: 8086674

Claim:
A method for enabling an attachment of an email message to be viewed on a portable electronic device, said method comprising: receiving a view request from a portable electronic device at one of a plurality of attachment servers in an attachment server network, each of said attachment servers having access to a respective cache for storing data corresponding to previously converted attachments, said data being available to any of said attachment servers in said attachment server network; performing a search of the respective cache of said one or other of said attachment servers in said attachment server network based on server load to locate a converted attachment corresponding to said attachment of said email message, wherein said search of the respective cache of said other of said attachment servers is performed remotely on said other of said attachment servers in response to a search request being sent from said one attachment server, said request identifying said attachment of said email message; and upon locating said converted attachment, sending said converted attachment to said portable electronic device for display by said attachment viewer.