INTERNET CONTENT DOWNLOAD

摘要

The present invention provides an apparatus and a method of transferring preselected data from a communications network (2) to an end station (1). This is achieved by monitoring the communications network (2) so that the end station (1) need only be connected to the network (2) when preselected data is ready or available. Accordingly, preselected data can be made available to the user as though a permanent connection were present whilst the technique allows the simplicity and reduced cost of a temporary connection to be utilised. E-mail and specific information content can be provided by an ISP (3) and delivered directly to the user's computer (1) by means of a connection initiated from the ISP (3) so that there is no necessity for the user's computer to be able to initiate a connection. The subscriber's administrator can specify the information content to be transferred by configuring parameters held at the ISP (3). Furthermore, the subscriber's administrator may, or may not, set configuration parameters at the ISP (3) to control the extent of E-mail communication permitted to the individual user.