Patent ID: 8429736

Claim:
A computer network proxy device, comprising: a computerized firewall comprising a processor and a mapping module operable to map an incoming connection on a first port or socket in a first namespace to a listening socket within the firewall identified in an alternate socket namespace by redirecting the incoming connection to the socket listening in the alternate namespace and from the socket listening in the alternate namespace to a first service external to the firewall to connect to the first service external to the firewall, wherein redirecting comprises forwarding an incoming connection to a second service via a socket the process of the second service creates by binding a name in an alternate namespace to the socket before listening for connections, wherein the listening socket identified in the alternate namespace comprises a named listening socket associated with two or more service providers, such that the two or more service providers each have a socket associated with a name of the named listening socket in the alternate namespace and provide a service associated with the name of the named listening socket, and wherein connections provided through the named listening socket are load balanced across the two or more service providers associated with the named listening socket.