Patent ID: 8874624

Claim:
A computer implemented method, comprising: receiving, at a seamless file system (SFS) extension to an operating system running within a computer system, a file system request from a first application program executing on the computer system, wherein the file system request includes a request to access a file stored at a remote file system of a Web server reachable over the Internet; in a network access application program running within the computer system, transforming the file system request into a network communications request conforming to a communications protocol, wherein the communications protocol is compatible with the Web server; forwarding the network communications request to the Web server; receiving a portion of the requested file from the Web server; and caching, locally within the computer system, the portion of the requested file received from the Web server; and in the SFS extension, using the portion of the cached requested file to respond to the file system request as an ordinary file system response, wherein the portion of the cached requested file is invisible via the file system of the operating system to a second application program running within the computer system other than the first application program.