Patent ID: 8316087

Claim:
A peer-to-peer communication system, comprising: a re-direct server executing server software and including a database including a plurality of system users and for each of said plurality of system users, a corresponding user ID, password, and network address for each corresponding user computer, wherein the re-direct server authenticates system users using the stored user IDs and passwords, wherein the re-direct server comprises at least one processor for executing said server software and a memory device storing said server software; a plurality of computer systems, including the corresponding user computers, interconnected with one another and the re-direct server via a communications network, each user computer executing peer-to-peer client software; wherein said peer-to-peer client software enables a given user to select a group of users, the selected group stored in a list of friends of the given user; wherein with said peer-to-peer client software said given user arbitrarily defines a plurality of zones, each zone comprising one or more functionally different peer-to-peer communication services displayed within a container window, wherein arbitrarily defining the plurality of zones comprises: selecting, by the given user, a name for each of the plurality of zones, presenting to the given user a listing of a plurality of functionally different peer-to-peer services, the listing including interactive peer-to-peer services, selecting, by the given user, one or more functionally different peer-to-peer communication services from the presented listing of functionally different peer-to-peer services, selecting, from the list of friends of the given user, one or more other users allowed to have access to each of the plurality of zones, wherein each of the selected name, selected peer-to-peer services, and allowed users are maintained as a definition for the zone; said peer-to-peer client software executed by a plurality of user computers is further configured to: activate concurrently one or more defined zones that the corresponding user is authorized to access by displaying the container window representing each of the one or more defined zones, for each activated zone, activating the one or more selected communication services corresponding to the activated zone, wherein the communication services enable the corresponding user to communicate with the given user, restrict access to each zone to the selected users authorized to have access to each zone, and maintain the definition of each zone, even when the zone is not active.