Upon receipt of a document request, a client assistant examines its cache for the document. If not successful, a server searches for the requested document in its cache. If the server copy is still not fresh or not found, the server seeks the document from its host. If the host cannot provide the copy, the server seeks it from a document repository. Certain documents are identified from the document repository as being fresh or stable. Information about each these identified documents is transmitted to the server which inserts entries into an index if the index does not already contain an entry for the document. If and when this particular document is requested, the document will not be present in the server, however the server will contain an entry directing the server to obtain the document from the document repository rather than the document's web host.