Patent ID: 7228349

Claim:
A system for interacting with end user terminals over a first communications network, the system comprising: a plurality of servers coupled to receive communication from the end user terminals over the first communications network; an interface disposed between the plurality of servers and end user terminals, the interface being operative to receive requests from the end user terminals and to distribute the requests to the plurality of servers; a second communication network coupled to provide communication between the servers in the plurality of servers; a first computer program segment resident at a first one of the plurality of servers, wherein said program: receives a first request from an end user terminal, processes the first request, and broadcasts data regarding the first request to a second one of the plurality of servers, a second computer program segment resident in the second one of the plurality of servers, wherein said second program: stores the data regarding the first request broadcast from the first one of the plurality of servers in a local memory, receives a second request from the end user terminal, retrieves from the local memory the data regarding the first request for processing the second request; and processes the second request based on the retrieved data, wherein, the first and second ones of the plurality of servers respectively receiving the first and second requests are selected based on a selection mechanism, the selection mechanism being configured to substantially evenly distribute request processing burdens amongst the plurality of servers.