Computer system making bandwidth-efficient use of internet resources

A method of providing access to the World Wide Web in an environment, selected from the group consisting of a transport system and a remote location, wherein such access is constrained, the method comprising:

• providing, for use in the environment, a computer system including:
• a processor;
• random access memory, locally coupled to the processor;
• a non-transitory storage system, locally coupled to the processor, in which are stored:
• (i) web data, current in the storage system at a given time T1, such web data consuming at least approximately 0.5 terabytes of capacity of the storage system, the data selected for storage based on use criteria that include at least one member selected from the group consisting of (a) frequency of occurrence in downloads from the World Wide Web as determined with reference to a relevant population of users over a relevant period of time and (b) relative importance to the relevant population of users over the relevant period of time;
• and
• (ii) instructions that establish a local-reference computer process executing on the processor, wherein the local-reference process, responsive to a URL entered into a browser, first accesses the storage system to determine whether web data corresponding to the entered URL is stored in the storage system, and, if so, causes the corresponding web data to be retrieved locally from the storage system and transmitted to the browser;
• so that the system achieves bandwidth-efficient use of internet resources by avoidance of use of internet resources for retrieval of any web data, corresponding to the entered URL, that is stored in the storage system, and this avoidance is achieved according to the use criteria;
• and
• updating the web data in the storage system in bulk at a scheduled time T2, wherein T2 occurs after T1, to reflect content that has arisen or changed between times T2 and T1.