CLIENT AND SERVER SYSTEM

An internet on-demand system for television presents internet content and traditional television programming as part of a single coherent interface. The system includes a server and a client capable of providing a dynamic graphical user interface. The system can display an internet gateway interface which actively scrolls through and highlights links to selected web pages which are organized according to templates corresponding to their content. The web pages are presented on the graphical user interface as channels as part of the same milieu as channels of traditional television programming. The user can select a channel from a rotary menu wheel or via channel-up, channel-down buttons on the remote control device. An intelligent agent passively filters selected web pages for a user to explore based on the user's past pattern of usage of the client. The server queries the client regarding its available data stream connections, including telephone modems, cable modems, wireless telecommunications and digital satellite broadcasting, regarding its ability to detect embedded data in TV signals, in order to determine the most efficient delivery of different types of data through all of the available bandwidth connections for both directions of data flow. The efficient delivery of data allows the client to present text, graphics, video, audio and other multimedia information from a web page over the internet as a coordinated presentation.