Patent ID: 7711768

Claim:
A method for ordered sending of complete messages via a computer network, comprising the steps of: receiving each of a plurality of complete messages at a data exchange server in a particular order that were sent by a send client, the complete messages being identified by the send client as belonging to one of a plurality of different ordered sets by an ordered set identifier associated with each complete message; for each complete message received by the data exchange server, assigning, at the data exchange server, a sequence identifier to the complete message separate from the ordered set identifier, wherein the sequence identifier identifies the particular order in which the complete message was received at the data exchange server, relative to other complete messages in the same ordered set; and using the data exchange server to send the complete messages to a next destination, using the sequence identifier for each complete message of the same ordered set, by sending the complete messages associated with the ordered set identifier to the next destination in the particular order, relative to other complete messages in the same ordered set, in which the complete messages were received by the data exchange server.