Patent ID: 8560707

Claim:
A method for maintaining network data distribution, comprising: establishing connections between a host and a plurality of clients, wherein data exchanged between the host and each of the plurality of clients is acknowledged upon receipt; determining by a host a backup viability of a first client from the plurality of clients based on at least Network Address Translation (NAT) profile information shared between the host and the plurality of clients upon establishment of the connections between the host and the plurality of clients wherein the NAT profile information for each of the plurality of clients includes information regarding whether the NAT supports universal plug and play (UPnP), and wherein determining backup viability of the first client from the plurality of clients based on at least NAT profile information includes use of the information regarding whether the NAT supports UPnP; and transmitting host information to the first client, wherein the first client establishes connections to all other clients from the plurality of clients based on at least the host information, and the first client receives data from a second client from the plurality of clients when communication between the host and the second client is interrupted, the interruption of communications identified as a result of no periodically broadcast update message being received within a predetermined amount of time.