Patent ID: 8068409

Claim:
A system for rerouting communication packets from a failed router to an alternate router in a Wide Area Network LAN, said system comprising: a first router in data connection to said LAN, said first router comprising: a first processor; and a first computer readable medium electronically coupled to said first processor; a second router in data connection to said LAN, said second router comprising: a second processor; and a second computer readable medium electronically coupled to said second processor; a plurality of routers data connected to said LAN and to said first and second routers; said first processor being in data communication with said second processor; and a plurality of instructions wherein at least a portion of said plurality of instructions are storable in said second computer readable medium, and further wherein said plurality of instructions are configured to cause said second processor to perform the steps of: detecting a failure of said first router; removing an ID of said first router from a communication packet; sending in response to having detected failure of said first router a probe packet to said first router to confirm failure of said first router; and sending said communication packet to at least one of said plurality of routers in response to having detected failure of said first router, said communication packet instructing said at least one of said plurality of routers to switch further data communications from said first router to said second router if said at least one of said plurality of the routers does not receive a response to said probe packet from said first router within a predetermined time range.