Patent ID: 7103645

Claim:
In a wide area network in which an Internet domain name system (DNS) is useable to resolve DNS queries directed to participating content provider content that is available from participating content provider sites, a method of content delivery wherein participating content providers identify content to be delivered by a service provider from a set of content servers that are distinct from the participating content provider sites and associated with the service provider, wherein a given object of a participating content provider is associated with an alphanumeric string, the method comprising: having the service provider establish an alternative domain name system (DNS), distinct from the Internet domain name system and any client local name server, and having authority to resolve the alphanumeric strings associated with the objects identified by the participating content providers so that the objects identified by the participating content providers are available to be served from the service provider's content servers, the service provider's alternative domain name system having one or more DNS levels, wherein at least one DNS level comprises a set of one or more name servers; for each of one or more participating content providers, delivering a given object on behalf of the participating content provider, wherein the given object is delivered by the following steps: responsive to a DNS query to the given object's associated alphanumeric string, the DNS query originating from a client local name server, receiving the DNS query at a given name server of a lowest level of the one or more DNS levels in the service provider's alternative domain name system, the given name server that receives the DNS query being close to the client local name server as determined by given location information; having the given name server that receives the DNS query resolve the alphanumeric string into an IP address that the given name server then returns to the client local name server, wherein the alphanumeric string is resolved without reference to a filename for the given object, wherein the IP address returned as a result of the resolution is associated with a content server within a given subset of the set of content servers, the subset of the set of content servers being associated with the given name server, the content server associated with the IP address returned by the given name server being selected according to a load sharing algorithm enforced across the subset of the set of content servers associated with the given name server; at the content server associated with the IP address, receiving a request for the given object, the request having the filename associated therewith; if the given object is available for delivery from the content server associated with the IP address, serving the given object from the content server.