the http proxy request to the http server that stores the requested data as indicated by the url in the above example vpn ssl gateway 102 would send the http proxy request to http server 104 a which is associated with url u201c wwwin cisco com u201d and which stores the file u201c info htm u201d however before vpn ssl gateway 102 sends the http proxy request vpn ssl gateway 102 inserts into the http proxy request a directive that instructs the destination http server to perform url mangling in the manner described below fig2 is a flow diagram of a technique for offloading url mangling from a vpn ssl gateway by instructing http server recipients of http proxy requests to perform the url mangling instead for purposes of illustrating a clear example the technique of fig2 is described below with reference to the example network arrangement of fig1 however embodiments of the technique of fig2 are not limited to the context of fig1 in block 202 an http request that originated from a client is received the http request indicates a mangled url the mangled url indicates a url that is associated with data that the client is requesting for example vpn ssl gateway 102 may receive an http request that originated from client 108 a the http request may indicate a mangled url such as u201c www sslvpn gw com http 0 wwwin cisco com info htm.