The invention relates to a Host Computer system, which receives information from
the Internet, rasterizes it, compresses it and transmits it to a portable device
which decompresses the image to display it on a screen. The Host Computer may also
transmit to another computer outfitted with a modem. The Host Computer which contains
an operating system, has a variety of peripheral device driver software installed
to enable interacting with these peripheral devices via a parallel port, serial
port, USB port, or other types of ports. Hence, when a peripheral device related
command is executed, data is sent from the peripheral device driver software to
the selected port on the Host Computer and is intercepted by another software unit,
which may compress this data and subsequently diverts it to the portable device
via modem. The particular type of peripheral device dedicated to the peripheral
device driver software in the Host Computer is connected to the portable device
or computer, and the compressed data received is decompressed by the portable device
or computer and sent to the corresponding port. This method allows the user to
interface with a wide variety of peripheral devices at portable locations without
the need for peripheral device driver software installed at the remote location.
