Patent ID: 7784092

Claim:
An identity provider locator (IDPL) server comprising: an interface to a data network to communicate with a plurality of identity provider servers and to communicate with a plurality of service provider servers; a processor; and a computer-readable medium accessible to the processor, the computer-readable medium including: a list of the plurality of identity provider servers; a list of the plurality of service provider servers, wherein each service provider server is associated with an identifier; and mappings between the plurality of identity provider servers and the plurality of service provider servers, wherein a list of identity provider servers associated with a particular service provider server is determined based on the identifier associated with the particular service provider server, wherein a first list of identity provider servers associated with a first service provider server of the plurality of service provider servers is provided to the first service provider server in response to a request an end-user computer to access the first service provider server, the first list of identity provider servers determined based on a first identifier associated with the first service provider server, and wherein the first list of identity provider servers is provided to the first service provider server without being stored as cookie information at the end-user computer.