Patent ID: 7130921

Claim:
A method of operating a peer-to-peer network having a multiplicity of clients, each of the multiplicity of clients having a unique client address and able to connect to or disconnect from the peer-to-peer network at any time, and a server having a list of client addresses, said method comprising the steps of: determining, at the server, which of the multiplicity of clients is connected to the peer-to-peer network; generating, at the server, a list of connected client addresses in response to the step of determining; communicating from the server to a first of the multiplicity of clients a first unique seed list comprising a first portion of the list of connected client addresses; communicating from the server to a second of the multiplicity of clients a second unique seed list comprising a second portion of the list of connected client addresses, the first unique seed list including a second client address corresponding to the second client and the second unique seed list including a third client address corresponding to a third of the multiplicity of clients; communicating a search request from the first client to at least the second client by utilizing the first unique seed list; communicating the search request from the second client to at least the third client by utilizing the second unique seed list; communicating from the third client to an external authentication process an identification signal; at the external authentication process authenticating the identification signal by determining if the identification signal was originated by the first client; and communicating from the external authentication process to the third client an authentication signal in response to an affirmative authentication by said step of authenticating.