Patent ID: 7260836

Claim:
In a distributed network which is registered with a unique domain name, said network comprising a number of clients and a number of authentication servers, said clients and said authentication servers being communicatively coupled to each other via a global telecommunication network, each of said authentication servers having a fully qualified domain name which is a local host name with said unique domain name appended, a distributed authentication system, wherein a given user enters a global user identification (GUID) and a password for authentication to be carried out at a target authentication server, said GUID comprising a user name, a delimitation symbol, and a domain portion which is same as the local host name of said target authentication server, said distributed authentication system comprising: a client for parsing an entered GUID and extracting said domain portion therefrom; means for appending said unique domain to said domain portion to form a fully qualified domain name (formed FQDN); means for translating said FQDN to an Internet Protocol (IP) address representing said target authentication server; means for sending said user name and password to said target authentication server for authentication; means for carrying out said authentication at the target authentication server and generating an authentication token that is recognizable by all authentication servers registered in said distributed network; responsive to said generating said authentication token, means for caching said authentication token on a participant authentication server; and means for distributing said authentication token to any participant authentication server registered in said distributed network.