Patent ID: 8392612

Claim:
A method for a client computer to locate a network address of a password server computer on a computer network, said password server computer having a public key that is an identifier of the password server computer, the method comprising: searching for the address of the password server computer in a local system storage of the client computer; and performing a backup search procedure if the address is not found in the local system storage, the backup search procedure being selected from a group of search procedures consisting of the following: broadcasting a message over the network to identify the address of the password server computer, searching an authentication record for the address of the password server computer, using a loop back address, using a inter process communication to determine whether the password server computer is running on a same CPU as the client computer in order to determine the network address, and searching a configuration record of the client computer for the address of the password server computer; and establishing a connection with the password server computer using the network address found, wherein: one or more of said search procedures searches for the password server computer using the public key as at least part of a search query to identify the server computer, and the public key identifies a plurality of password server computers having different network addresses.