Patent ID: 8266323

Claim:
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium containing executable computer program instructions which cause a method to be performed by a client data processing system (DPS) to establish a first connection between the client DPS and a sharing service system, which provides a sharing service to the client DPS and the first connection used to enable access by the client DPS to the sharing service provided by the sharing service system, the method comprising: establishing at the client DPS a second connection with a name server providing a service to both the client DPS and the sharing service system, the name server being operatively coupled to the client DPS and the sharing service system, and the name server having received from the sharing service system an address information of the sharing service system, wherein the address information of the sharing service system includes a dynamically generated address for the sharing service system, the name server is a secure name server, and the client and sharing service system are on different local area networks and are coupled to the name server through different wide area network connections; transmitting to the name server, a request for a service from the sharing service system, wherein the request includes the name of the sharing service system; in response to transmitted service request, receiving from the name server the address information of the sharing service system and information about enabled sharing services provided by the sharing service system, wherein the enabled sharing services include a plurality of different types of sharing services and the name server provides an identification of a user of the client DPS to the sharing service system; in response to the sharing service system receiving the client DPS user identification from the name server, establishing at the client DPS the first connection, using the address information from the name server and the client DPS user identification, with the sharing service system to receive at least one of the types of sharing service from the sharing service system.