Patent ID: 6917978

Claim:
A network system which communicates with a network device storing information or an object, and has a function of retrieving information, comprising: an information network address unit monitoring information network addresses of packets transferred through the network system to track current locations of information, and assigning an information network address which is an identification name of specific information or an object and non-uniquely specifies a host holding the specific information or the object, where if one host holds plural pieces of information, the host has a plurality of information network addresses and if multiple hosts have identical information, the hosts have identical information network addresses, and where said information network address unit identifies another host accessible to the user and containing the specific information if the host becomes inaccessible to the user during transfer of information; and an information retrieval communications unit establishing communications for the network device storing the specific information or the object corresponding to the information network address, so that a user is not required to obtain a network address through a retrieval service for checking correspondence between information and network addresses, a host accessed by the user using the information network address necessarily contains information and if communications cannot be established using the information network address, the information exists nowhere in the network system, and the user is able to access a nearest host or least expensive host because change information is transmitted as route information to a routing mechanism in the network system when a configuration or position of any host is changed.