Patent ID: 6892235

Claim:
A method for dynamically selecting a firewall server for a web client, in particular a web browser, in a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) network comprising a plurality of firewall servers, said method comprising the steps of: measuring performance and availability of each firewall server using measurement probes, including measuring the total response time needed for retrieving from a web server known information, in particular one or a plurality of known web pages, through each firewall server and wherein the step of measuring the total response time comprises the further steps, for each firewall server, of: starting timing for a given one of said plurality of firewall servers; establishing a connection with the web server through said given one of said plurality of firewall servers; retrieving the one or a plurality of known web pages from the web server; checking that the retrieved one or plurality of web pages contain one or a plurality of known keywords; and stopping timing for said given one of said plurality of firewall servers; and dynamically selecting a firewall server according to the performance and availability measurements.