Patent ID: 7278921

Claim:
A method of searching a participant or participants in an online game or online chatting, comprising: providing, to each of a group of subscribers, an ID retaining section for retaining an ID to be assigned from a network server, an IP recording section for temporally recording an IP address assigned, when connected to a network, from a provider in which each subscriber subscribes until connection to the network is disconnected, a transmission section to the server, and a control section connected to the ID retaining section, the IP recording section and the transmission section, receiving participant search information from one of the subscribers in starting the online game or online chatting on the network to which a plurality of subscribers is connected with the network server as a core, said network server having a log-in monitoring section; managing a channel and a relation between the ID and the IP address of all of the subscribers currently logging-in by the server; collating attribute information concerning the subscribers stored in the server in response to the participant search information by the server; selecting subscribers other than the one of the subscribers satisfying the participant search information in all the subscribers currently connected to the network by the server; distributing participant recruiting information to the selected subscribers by the server; upon acceptance to the participant recruiting information, transferring an IP address and an ID of an accepted subscriber through the transmission section to the server; returning the participation acceptance information of the accepted subscriber to the one of the subscribers by the server; and sending a start signal from the one of the subscribers to the log-in monitoring section, said log-in monitoring section monitoring until a termination signal is received from the one of the subscribers.