Patent ID: 7441270

Claim:
A method of establishing communications comprising: establishing a virtual connection between a source computer system assigned a source virtual host name and located behind a first connectivity barrier and a destination computer system assigned a destination virtual host name and located behind a second connectivity barrier, wherein establishing the virtual connection comprises: establishing, by the source computer system, a first persistent, bi-directional barrier traversal session between the source computer system and a forwarder/relay service, wherein establishing the first session includes representing data of a first application in a format associated with a proxy network protocol configured to communicate data corresponding to another application so that the data of the first application is communicated through the first connectivity barrier using the proxy network protocol; and establishing, by the destination computer system, a second persistent, bi-directional barrier traversal session between the destination computer system and the forwarder/relay service, the forwarder/relay service maintaining the second session if the first session is temporarily lost and re-establishing the virtual connection when then first session is re-established.