Patent ID: 8028090

Claim:
A method comprising: obtaining a DNS query from a client computing device at a first DNS server, wherein the DNS query corresponds to a requested resource associated with an original resource identifier provided by a content provider and wherein the first DNS server corresponds to a content delivery network service; obtaining a query IP address associated with the DNS query at the first DNS server; obtaining a location-based identifier associated with the query IP address and a confidence factor, the confidence factor corresponding to a degree of confidence associated with the accuracy of the location-based identifier to query IP address association; determining whether the confidence factor exceeds a threshold value; if the confidence factor exceeds the threshold value: determining a destination identifier associated with the DNS query, wherein the destination identifier is determined based on the location-based identifier; selecting a network point of presence associated with the content delivery network service provider based on the destination identifier; determining whether the first DNS server is authoritative to the DNS query based on the selected network point of presence; and if the first DNS server is not authoritative: obtaining an alternative resource identifier based on the selected network point of presence, wherein the alternative resource identifier includes information for causing a DNS query to resolve to a domain corresponding to the selected network point of presence; transmitting the alternative resource identifier to the client computing device; obtaining a subsequent DNS query from the client computing device at a second DNS server, wherein the subsequent DNS query corresponds to the alternative resource identifier provided by the content delivery network service provider; determining whether the second DNS server is authoritative to the subsequent DNS query; selecting a cache component for providing content associated with the original resource request if the second DNS server is authoritative to the second DNS query; and transmitting information identifying the selected cache component if the second DNS server is determined to be authoritative.