Abstract: An apparatus and computer-implemented method for distributing information to a plurality of client devices on a network is disclosed. The computer-implemented method includes the steps of: 1) receiving a variety of information from a plurality of sources, 2) organizing the variety of information into information categories, and 3) distributing the variety of information to the plurality of client devices based on the information categories requested by the plurality of client devices. The invention further includes the steps of: 4) accepting user input at the client device to specify information categories for retrieval from a server, 5) generating a user profile based on the information categories specified by the user input, and 6) retrieving information at predetermined intervals from the server based on the user profile.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus for routing network messages from a client to a server bypassing a router which requires that the router, in one embodiment, maintain a table to record where the client's communications were redirected in previous communications. This allows the router to reestablish an identical connection the next time the client needs to communicate with a server. Further, the router transmits a multicast message containing the redirection information to the other routers in the system allowing the other routers in the system to reestablish the same client-server connection.

Abstract: A server services client requests in an improved manner by a utilizing a combination of sending an id of the last article that has been previously sent to the client, load balancing servers to provide efficient servicing of clients and providing redundant servers so that a failure of any one server does not result in the termination of server services to clients.

Abstract: A computer network including a client, at least one caching proxy server, and a destination computer is described. In a specific embodiment, a client computer may request particular types of information by including a category ID in request messages. In order to reduce network traffic, the destination computer may redirect the client's request messages to a caching proxy server, which is preferably located behind the same firewall or gateway as the client. The destination computer may initiate the redirection of client computer requests after receiving an HTTP proxy.sub.-- GET request message from the client. The destination computer sends a message to the caching proxy server specifying the categories of request that the client computer will direct to the caching proxy server. The proxy server forwards this message to the client computer. The client computer uses the information contained in this message to direct requests messages to a specific caching proxy server based on a category ID.