Methods and arrangements are disclosed for transferring digital data over a limited speed communications link between a client side subarrangement (401) and a server side subarrangement (402). Within the client side subarrangement (401), a client application (411, 502) receives and transmits digital data using a first communications protocol stack (412, 503, 504, 505) and, within the server side subarrangement (402), a server application (426, 572) receives and transmits digital data using the first communications protocol stack (425, 573, 574, 575). Digital data is transferred between the client application (411, 502) and the server application (426, 572) through a client proxy (511) within the client side subarrangement (401) and an access gateway (551) within the server side subarrangement (402). Said client proxy (511) performs protocol conversations between the first communications protocol stack (412, 503, 504, 505) and a second communications protocol stack (415, 521, 522, 523, 524, 525, 526) that provides a bandwidth efficiency that is better than a bandwidth efficiency to which the first communications protocol corresponds.