Server mediated point-to-point communication over a computer network

摘要

In a computer system (12) having an audio transducer and a display device and being operatively coupled to other computers (22) and a server (26) over a computer network (24), means are described for establishing a point-to-point communication link between computer systems. The means provide for transmitting from a first process to the server a query as to whether a second process is connected to the computer network and for receiving a network protocol address of the second process from the server when the second process is connected to the computer network. In response to the received network protocol of the second process a point-to-point communication link is established between the first process and the second process over the computer network.