Abstract: A system and method for establishing communications channels between and among peers in a peer-to-peer networking environment. Pipes may be used as communication channels for sending and receiving messages and other data between services or applications over input and output endpoints. Pipes may be asynchronous, unidirectional, stateless and unreliable. Bidirectional pipes may also be supported. Pipes may have ends that may be moved around and bound to different peers at different times. Point-to-point and propagate pipes may be supported. Pipes may connect peers that have a direct physical link and peers that do not have a direct link. Peers may communicate through pipes without knowing on which peer a pipe endpoint is bound. A message is sent to all peer endpoints currently connected (listening) to the pipe. The set of connected endpoints may be obtained from a pipe service using a pipe binding protocol.

Abstract: A system and method of operating a client network computer in a disconnected mode. A client computer system includes a client storage device, a processor, a network interface, a failover server and a software manager. The processor is configured to execute software instructions stored in the client storage device. The network interface is configured to connect the client computer system to a remote network server unit. A failover server implemented on the client computer system is configured to provide functionality similar to the remote network server unit by accessing a copy of a network database file stored on the client storage device. A software manager stored in the client storage device is configured to cause the client computer system to connect to the remote network server unit if the remote network server unit is available or to cause the client computer system to connect to the failover server if the remote network server unit is not available.