On Mon, 8 Nov 2004, M. Huda wrote: : market today. I need to know about the technology and how the : solution/company (such as Akamai) caters its customers. Do they mirror : the content across their server's network? If this is the case then : how a request is directed to the closest and lightly loaded server on : Internet? This is the proprietary part of the technology that produced law suits with Akamai. Here's Akamai's sound byte: Host-to-Host Adaptive Routing Protocol (HHARP). HHARP detects Internet congestion and determines the best route to move content between a customer's origin servers and the edge of the Internet, thereby avoiding performance problems. Don't forget that Akamai is not the only one. Footprint, which went from Sandpiper -> Digital Island -> Cable and Wireless -> Savvis, is the product on the other side of the lawsuit. I don't know if it was ever resolved fully... scott