Patent ID: 7177933

Claim:
A method for balancing the load of requests from a plurality of network devices for service from a selected one of a plurality of service providers, said devices and said service providers being interconnected by a network, said method comprising the steps of: a) in each of said devices, storing a location code indicative of geographic locations of said devices; b) in each of said devices, storing a table relating geographic location codes and network addresses for said service providers; and c) said devices being programmed so that a requesting device initiates a request by: c1) retrieving said location code for said requesting device; c2) accessing said table to retrieve a service provider address associated with a service provider location code geographically closest to said retrieved location code; so that utilization of the service providers is systematically load balanced with respect to the geographical location of the client c3) addressing said initiated request with said retrieved service provider address; and d) accessing by said devices a seed system to download an updated table if said devices cannot access the service provider retrieved from said table.