Patent ID: 7898968

Claim:
A method for determining a communication path between a first computing device and a second computing device, the method comprising: (a) receiving, at a second computing device, a plurality of IP addresses for a first computing device, the first and second computing devices being endpoint computing devices that communicate with one another over a network; (b) establishing a primary connection between the first and second computing devices using a first one of the plurality of IP addresses of the first computing device; (c) transmitting, from the second computing device, a plurality of probe messages to each of the plurality of IP addresses of the first computing device; (d) receiving, at the second computing device from each of the plurality of IP addresses of the first computing device, a plurality of responses to the plurality of probe messages; (e) analyzing, at one of the first and second endpoint computing devices, at least one of the plurality of probe messages or the plurality of responses to the plurality of probe messages; and (f) selecting, based on the analysis, one of the plurality of IP addresses of the first computing device for future communications between the first to the second computing devices.