A system for permitting passengers on board an aircraft to send and
receive electronic data is described. The components of the system on
board the aircraft include a server having a plurality of nodes to which
computer terminals are attached, as desired. The computer terminals are
laptop or palm-top personal computers belonging to the various passengers
on board or fixed terminals within the aircraft. The server communicates
with a wide variety of different terminals running different operating
systems. Each computer terminal is connected to the server via an
aircraft network. Server has mass storage which contains a database of
WWW pages which can be browsed by passengers using terminals. Server
provides a domain name server (DNS) that masquerades as the passenger's
usual DNS. Server then links the passenger to the appropriate locally
stored WWW page. Server also contains storage for e-mail messages.
Connected to server is one or more radios. This permits data to be
transferred to base station using communications network. A virtual
private network (VPN) connects station to communications service provider
networks, web content processor, and via links to the Internet, including
access to subscriber ISPs/corporate mail servers and other mail servers.
Points of Presence (POP) provide Internet access and e-mail service to
subscribers of the service while not on the aircraft. POPs can also be
used by communications service provider networks and web content
processors as an alternate means to connect to VPN.
