Patent ID: 7801998

Claim:
A method for establishing and maintaining a connection by a client to a server within a network, the method comprising: creating a socket for connecting to the server based on authentication information associated with the client, the socket comprising a context object; connecting to the server using the socket; saving the authentication information associated with the client in the context object of the socket; in a case where subsequent connection to the server is requested by the client, determining if the authentication information saved in the context object of the socket matches authentication information of the client for the subsequent connection; in a case where it is determined that the authentication information saved in the context object of the socket matches the authentication information of the client for the subsequent connection, reconnecting to the server via the socket; in a case where it is determined that the saved authentication information does not match the authentication information of the client for the subsequent connection, creating a new socket for connecting to the server, based on the authentication information of the client for the subsequent connection; and connecting to the server using the new socket.