Patent ID: 8204027

Claim:
A method for administering requests for data communications connections in a wide area network that includes a plurality of networks, the method comprising: receiving, according to a data communications protocol, by a receiver from a sender, a request for a data communications connection, wherein the sender has a network address on a sender's network, the receiver has a network address on a receiver's network, and the receiver has a receiver port having a state; characterizing the sender as local with respect to the receiver's network if the sender's network is the receiver's network; characterizing the sender as remote with respect to the receiver's network if the sender's network is not the receiver's network; setting a value of a location response flag by an application program's subroutine call through an application programming interface for the data communications protocol; and responding to the request in dependence upon: the value of the location response flag; the characterization of the sender's network with respect to the receiver's network; and the receiver port state, wherein the receiver port state is either a closed port state or an open port state and wherein: a closed port state is the state of a port that either does not exist or the state of a port that has not been instructed to listen; and an open port state is the state of a port that exists and has been instructed to listen.