Abstract: A method of configuring an appliance to be a plug-and-play network filter includes the steps of configuring an appliance to alter the flow of network traffic when the appliance is connected to a network. The appliance is configured to change the address resolution protocol ARP so that it assumes the role of a router by issuing an ARP packet. The appliance is configured to establish itself between the router and end user terminals. The appliance is configured to respond to any ARP Request on the Gateway IP address. The appliance is configured to monitor Internet traffic, and filter certain predefined types of Internet traffic. The appliance is configured to transparently proxy web packets on TCP with destination port 80.

Abstract: An interactive video creation method (34) for constructing an interactive video interface (34) having a primary video layer (12a), a library layer (12b) and a resource data base layer (12c). The primary video layer (12a) is a conventional video presentation where a plurality of sequences (16) are identified and one or more key frames (18) designated within each of the sequences (16). An establish edit decision list operation (36a) is applied to identify the sequences (16), and an establish key frame data base operation (36b) is applied to identify the key flames (18). A designate hot spots operation (36c) is then applied to make available the user an information in the resource data base layer (12c) which is keyed to hot spots (52) in that key frame (18) through the library layer (12b).