Patent ID: 8407471

Claim:
A method for selecting a network service for communicating with a server via a network, comprising: detecting a network connection at a client; sending a test probe as a Domain Name System (DNS) resolution request from the client to a DNS server associated with the server via the network connection, the test probe probing whether an intermediate DNS proxy is interfering with the DNS resolution request; responsive to receiving a response to the test probe, analyzing the response to determine whether the response is valid, a valid response indicating that the DNS resolution request is not being interfered with by an intermediate DNS proxy; and selecting a network service for subsequent communications with the server via the network connection responsive to whether a valid response to the test probe was received, wherein the DNS is selected as the network service for subsequent communications with the server responsive to a determination that the received response to the test probe is valid and a network service other than the DNS is selected for subsequent communications with the server responsive to a determination that the received response to the test probe is invalid.