Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Eimei Namma

Tomomi Kaga

A proxy server apparatus (APP) coupled to a network and a TEL network is disclosed, which comprises: a receiving portion for receiving a request, from a client terminal coupled to the network, for connection to a desired server APP therethrough via the TEL network, the request including a name of the server; an address table for storing the name and corresponding TEL NO.; a PPP connection portion for dynamically assigning an IP address to the desired server APP from the name according to the address table and for providing PPP connection between the desired server APP and the proxy server APP; and a COMM providing portion for providing communication between the client terminal and the desired server APP using the IP address. A proxy server system including a plural proxy server APP is also disclosed, wherein a request is forwarded to a desired server according to a proxy server arrangement table in each proxy server APP and communication is routed through other server APP. The proxy server arrangement table is determined according to distance in TEL network or data rate of the proxy server APP. A server APP is disclosed which informs the proxy server coupled thereto of disconnection when all circuits to the proxy server are in non communication condition for a predetermined interval.

Proxy server apparatus, a proxy server system, and a server apparatus

A virtual WWW (World Wide Web) server apparatus which can obtain a plurality of predetermined HTML files and combine these into a single HTML file in response to a specific URL sent from a WWW browser, can connect to WWW servers and the browser via a network such as the Internet, to thereby enable the browser to obtain via the network the contents of a plurality of data files each of which may be HTML files, acquired from respective WWW servers through the intermediary of the virtual WWW server apparatus as a single combined file, and to thereby display the respective file contents together on a single display screen. The virtual WWW server apparatus can further include a linkage file whose contents relate respective names of video cameras controlled by various WWW servers to URLs for sending control commands for these cameras, thereby enabling commands for respective cameras, sent from a browser, to be identified by the corresponding camera names. A plurality of video images from respective cameras can be displayed embedded in respective HTML file contents on a single display screen of a browser, and hence a remote monitoring system or interactive TV system can be easily implemented.

Virtual WWW server for enabling a single display screen of a browser to be utilized to concurrently display data of a plurality of files which are obtained from respective servers and to send commands to these servers

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Eimei Namma