Patent ID: 8078739

Claim:
A method for handling data requests by a client for data in an internal server of a private network, the method comprising: (a) at the client, initiating communication to a secure server within the private network; (b) receiving a data request handling procedure at the client such that the data request handling procedure is automatically downloaded to the client when the client connects to the secure server within the private network, wherein the data request handling procedure is automatically downloaded to the client by the secure server without user input from the client; (c) at the client, by the data request handling procedure, intercepting requests for data initiated by the client and substituting an address of the secure server for a portion of each data request that is being directed to the internal server of the private network, wherein the substitution is performed so that the each data request is thereafter forwarded to the secure server instead of the internal server; wherein each of the data requests is a universal remote locator (URL) request for a web page, wherein the data requests are in the form of links embedded within an initial web page presented to the client by the secure server; (d) performing URL substitution by the data request handling procedure at the client after the data request handling procedure has been downloaded to the client such that each of the links embedded within the initial web page presented to the client by the secure server is replaced with a URL of the secure server, wherein performing URL substitution is performed prior to the selection by the client of one of the links embedded within the initial web page; and (e) associating the data request handling procedure with an instance of a browser which initiated communication to the secure server within the private network, and automatically altering the proxy settings of the instance of the browser associated with the request handling procedure so that data requests are directed to a local address and port on which the request handling procedure is configured to listen.