Abstract: A communication system and method that provides efficient, global load balancing and enables data transfer over the internet without being blocked by firewalls an proxies. The system includes a plurality of remote portals that place requests and receive responses. A request is sent to a plurality of gateway servers. The first gateway server to respond, considering any performance delays, is selected to process the request. The request is then passed to a plurality of routers. The first router to respond, considering any performance delays, processes the request and converts it into a response. The response is sent back to the gateway server and then to the portal. Data is transferred between the portals using a transport module which is a client interface that establishes connections between portals, a transport channel that is an application interface that transmits timely data, and proxy that assists the transport module in bypassing firewalls.