Abstract: Specialized Internet gateway apparatuses provide Internet access to conventional network-enabled client devices through multiple disjoint segments of the Internet simultaneously by means of multiple Internet access devices and of a “connection-merging protocol”. Virtual relay servers, which also implement the connection-merging protocol, act as proxies between the gateway apparatuses and the conventional network-enabled application servers the client devices connected to said gateway apparatuses wish to communicate with. A virtual resource allocation and information server aggregates status and routing information relevant to the gateway apparatuses, and dynamically adjusts the number, location and/or performance specifications of running virtual relay servers.