Patent ID: 6879998

Claim:
A method for increasing transfer quality on a content distribution system, the distribution system comprising a client computer and a selector, the method comprising steps of: determining a first transfer quality factor relating the client computer and a first source, the first transfer quality factor comprising an average time a content object will remain on the first source, the first source identified by a first identifier; determining a second transfer quality factor relating the client computer and a second source, the second source identified by a second identifier, wherein at least one of the first and second sources caches a content object that originates elsewhere; providing a preference to the selector, wherein the preference is based on the first and second transfer quality factors, the preference comprising at least one of the first and second identifiers; and automatically selecting one of the first source and the second source with the selector to supply the content object requested by the client computer, wherein the selecting step is based, at least in part, on the preference.