Patent ID: 7734817

Claim:
A method for use with a plurality of peer-to-peer realms on a network, each realm having a unique realm name on the network such that each peer-to-peer realm is uniquely identified by its corresponding realm name, the method comprising: receiving a resource address for a peer resource available on one of the peer-to-peer realms, the resource address comprising: a locator service name for a locator service included in a peer-to-peer realm that tracks where peer resources are expected to be available among a plurality of peer devices included in the peer-to-peer realm; a master publisher name for a peer device included in the peer-to-peer networking environment among the plurality of peer devices that is a master publisher of the peer resource; a path name for a master copy of the peer resource within the master publisher; wherein said resource address uniquely names the peer resource in the corresponding peer-to-peer realm; and based on the realm name in the peer resource address, determining that the peer resource address is an address of a resource on the peer-to-peer realm corresponding to the realm name, and in response using at least part of the resource address to obtain from the locator service a plurality of peer device locations where the peer resource is expected to be available within the peer-to-peer realm, said plurality of peer device locations to enable access to the peer resource at any one or more corresponding peer devices.