An interface device for connecting to and retrieving data from a remote computer system, and method of compressing, decompressing and transferring data therefor. A user may set transfer constraints on the interface device. The interface device may be a web browser. The user selecting a web site requests data, normally image data from a remote computer system. The interface device includes a cache memory where generic objects may be stored. Each generic object corresponds to an original object in the requested data. Depending on the data transfer constraints, instead of retrieving the entire image, e.g., web page image, unaltered from the host system, a compact generic image is retrieved, initially, wherein generic objects are substituted for each corresponding original object. A pseudo-image is displayed, with the generic objects substituted for corresponding original objects. Subsequently received original objects may be substituted for generic objects as each original object is received.