Web services, such as UDDI based web services, are intended to operate synchronously, e.g., a client issues a discovery request for availability of a service provider, or the client issues a web service request for service by a discovered service provider, and the client is expected to block/wait until a response is received to the clients request. While this configuration may work effectively when the client has a stable network connection, it is not effective when the client is offline. An environment is disclosed for effectively implementing web services when the client is offline by faking appropriate registry and service provider responses, and then deferring request processing until network connectivity is restored.