Patent ID: 8606941

Claim:
A relay server including hardware and software and connected to a Local Area Network and communicable through a Wide Area Network with at least one other relay server connected to at least one other Local Area Network, the relay server comprising: an account information registration unit including hardware and software and arranged to store account information of a client terminal connected to the Local Area Network; a relay group information registration unit including hardware and software and arranged to store relay group information including: account information of a respective relay server of the at least one other relay server belonging to a relay group in which the relay server and the respective relay server permit connection with each other; and account information of a client terminal connected to the respective relay server through a respective Local Area Network of the at least one other Local Area Network; a relay group sharing unit including hardware and software and arranged to share the relay group information with other relay servers of the relay group; and a shared resource information registration unit including hardware and software and arranged to store, with respect to the relay group, shared resource information including: a name of a file or a folder of a shared resource; account information of a client terminal arranged to operate the shared resource; and account information of client terminals sharing the shared resource; wherein when the relay server receives an operation instruction for the shared resource from a client terminal stored in the account information registration unit, the relay server specifies a client terminal arranged to operate the shared resource and a relay server connected to the client terminal arranged to operate the shared resource based on both of the relay group information that is shared with the other relay servers of the relay group and the shared resource information, so as to relay the operation instruction from the client terminal stored in the account information registration unit to the specified client terminal arranged to operate the shared resource through the specified relay server connected to the specified client terminal arranged to operate the shared resource.