Patent ID: 7849505

Claim:
A method of selecting a virtual private network access server, the method comprising: receiving a request from a client device to access a network resource of a private network via a virtual private network (VPN); determining a number of client devices communicatively connected to each VPN access server of a plurality of VPN access servers; determining a preferred VPN access server of the plurality of VPN access servers based on the number of client devices communicatively connected to each VPN access server and based on a load balancing preference to evenly distribute users among the plurality of VPN access servers; sending a list of the plurality of VPN access servers and operational data related to each of the plurality of VPN access servers to the client device, wherein the list of the plurality of VPN access servers includes an indication of the preferred VPN access server, wherein the operational data related to each VPN access server includes at least geographical information related to the VPN access server, proximity of the VPN access server to the client device, and proximity of the VPN access server to the network resource; receiving a selection of one of the plurality of VPN access servers from the client device; determining an encryption level based on the selection, wherein the encryption level corresponds to a geographic location of the selected one of the plurality of VPN access servers; and communicatively connecting the client device with the selected one of the plurality of VPN access servers.