Patent ID: 7197574

Claim:
A domain name system inquiry apparatus comprising: current location information receiving means for receiving location information of the apparatus itself on a connected network; current location management means for storing location information received by said current location information receiving means; server information receiving means for receiving server information regarding plural domain name servers to which an inquiry can be made; server management means for storing the server information received by said server information receiving means; request receiving means for receiving a domain name inquiry request from a client; request transferring means for creating first and second domain name inquiry requests based on the domain name inquiry request received by said request receiving means and at least one of said location information and said server information, and for transferring said first and second domain name inquiry requests to first and second domain name servers, respectively; response receiving means for receiving a first domain name inquiry response to the first domain name inquiry request from the first domain name server and a second domain name inquiry response to the second domain name inquiry request from the second domain name server; request responding means for selecting the second domain name inquiry response based at least in part on server information corresponding to the first and second domain name servers and for sending the second domain name inquiry response corresponding to the second domain name server to said client; and means for selecting the second domain name inquiry response further based on a failure counter included in the server information corresponding to the first domain name server exceeding a predetermined value.