SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MAINTAINING STATE INFORMATION BETWEEN A WEB PROXY SERVER AND ITS CLIENTS

摘要

A distributed network communication system implements a series of token exchange transactions similar to those used when passing browser cookies between an Internet server and a browser client. Rather than instigating a cookie exchange transaction from the Internet server to store information relevant to the server, according to this aspect of the present invention the proxy cookie is stored on the client side at the behest of the web proxy (20). To the browser client (10), the proxy cookie appears to be identical to any regular browser cookie; however, whenever the browser client (10) presents a request for information to the proxy (20) which is to be passed on to the Internet server (30), the proxy (20) strips the proxy cookie from the request and uses it to identify the originator of the request. Based on this, the proxy (20) can customize and personalize the client's information request as appropriate and pass it on to the Internet server (30).