Patent ID: 7281028

Claim:
A method for retrieving data from a data network, said network being of the type from which data can be retrieved, as multi-level data pages, from a plurality of data servers and by a plurality of users, said method comprising the steps of: providing each of the users with an editable navigation tool for retrieving any of the data pages from said network; establishing, for said each user, a personal proxy in a residential or local network gateway or a user station, said personal proxy having a cache memory, each of said users having a separate corresponding personal proxy thus forming a plurality of personal proxies associated with a group of said users; storing, for said each user and in the personal proxy for said each user, one of the data pages and a corresponding data page level as accessed by said each user from the network and through use of the navigation tool; subsequently retrieving, for said each user and through use of the navigation tool, any of the data pages and corresponding data page levels then stored in said personal proxy so as to define a retrieved data page and a retrieved corresponding data page level; and analyzing the retrieved data page and the corresponding retrieved data page level; and refreshing said personal proxy for said each user by accessing, from the network, recent versions of data pages and corresponding data page levels stored within the personal proxy and updating said data pages and said corresponding data page levels then stored in the personal proxy with said recent versions thereof; and wherein said analyzing step comprises the steps of: analyzing data pages and data page levels previously retrieved for the group of users and stored within said plurality of personal proxies, said plurality of personal proxies forming a family proxy associated with all of said users in said group of users; and calculating an average level depth and a timing profile of each of the data pages then stored within the family proxy in response to a number of retrievals of said each stored data page from the family proxy; and wherein said refreshing step comprises the step of: refreshing said each stored data page in the family proxy at a frequency responsive to the average level depth and the timing profile.