In order to provide a home user with cost-effective PC processing capability, the home user is provided with a terminal which has only sufficient processing capability to communicate with a service provider over a network. Any processing and program execution is performed, in response to requests from the home user's terminal, by the service provider and the results are returned to the terminal. In addition to the processing capability, data is stored in the service provider. Because the processing and data storage is performed by the service provider, changes to the programs and/or hardware can the confined to the processing resources of the service provider. In addition, the service provider can be provided with virus and hacking protection, protection that will then not be necessary for the home user's terminal. In this manner, the home user can be charged for only the facilities and software that are actually used, while having available the full capability of a personal computer without the initial cost of a home computer, the on-going cost of maintenance, and the cost of upgrading hardware and software. The communication link can be a secure link.