Methods and apparatus for delivering targeted information and advertising over the internet

A method of providing advertisements over the Internet, the method comprising:

• providing a user with a mini-portal device having a unique identifier, the mini-portal device comprising a communication device and display software that causes advertisements to be displayed on a screen of an Internet access device, the display software displaying advertisements stored on the Internet access device when a first idle condition is met, the display software downloading the advertisements over the Internet and storing the advertisements on the Internet access device when a second idle condition is met;
• sending the unique identifier over the Internet to a validation server, the validation server comprising a database that associates the unique identifier with a pointer to an advertisement server, the validation server sending the pointer to the advertising server to the mini-portal;
• using the pointer to the advertising server to connect to the advertising server over the Internet, the advertising server providing access to one or more advertisements;
• calculating a fee for displaying the one or more advertisements to the user;
• collecting the fee from the owners of the one or more advertisements;
• using a portion of the fee to subsidize the Internet connection;
• downloading the one or more advertisements;
• and
• storing the one or more advertisements on the Internet access device, so that they may be displayed by the display software.

A server that controls the access of one or more clients to advertising material, each of the one or more clients comprising a mini-portal device having a unique identifier, the mini-portal device comprising a communication device and display software that causes advertisements to be displayed on a screen of an Internet access device, the display software displaying advertisements stored on the Internet access device only when a first idle condition is met, the display software downloading the advertisements over the Internet and storing the advertisements on the Internet access device when a second idle condition is met, the server comprising:

• a processor;
• a communication device connecting the server to the Internet;
• a storage device containing a database that associates the unique identifier of the mini-portal device with a pointer to an advertising server;
• and
• a memory, the memory comprising:
• an initialization routine that accepts the unique identifier of the mini-portal over the Internet, and sends the pointer to the advertising server to the mini-portal.

An advertisement server, that sends pointers to advertisements to a mini-portal device, the mini-portal device comprising a communication device and display software that causes advertisements to be displayed on a screen of an Internet access device, the display software displaying advertisements stored on the Internet access device only when a first idle condition is met, the display software downloading the advertisements over the Internet and storing the advertisements on the Internet access device when a second idle condition is met, the advertisement server comprising:

• a processor;
• a communication device connecting the server to the Internet;
• a storage device containing an index file, the index file comprising pointers to one or more content servers;
• and
• a memory, the memory comprising:
• an advertisement routine that sends the index file to the mini-portal device in response to a request from the mini-portal device.