The invention discloses a system for accessing and viewing Internet content on a portable device by means of a proxy server. The server requests web content, renders it and sends compressed image parts to the device. In order for the device to be cost-competitive, its processing operations are generally limited to decompressing image parts and displaying them. The server sends information to the device that allows it to locally create, display and manage text boxes, in which the user can type immediately. As a user types into a local text box, text input data is communicated to the server and processed therein before further requests for web content. By simultaneously managing multiple text boxes locally, the present invention reduces instances of data transfer from the server to the device, which decreases the likelihood of lag and improves the performance of the device.