Abstract: A method is provided for switching video stream servers in a video streaming system adapted to transmit video over the Internet comprising, creating and initializing a plurality of supporting sockets for transmitting video data over the Internet; creating a socket pool comprising a plurality of initialized back-up sockets; reading at least one video piece from at least one of the plurality of supporting sockets; determining whether the time period required for reading the at least one video piece is greater than a predetermined period of time; and switching “bad” supporting sockets, for which the time period for reading at least one video piece was greater than the predetermined period of time, with “good” back-up sockets from the socket pool.