Abstract: The present invention discloses an Internet billing method which can reject invalid orders with reliability, and which can be used without a credit card. In the present invention, a terminal makes a request of a content server for a chargeable service by using a prepaid information medium which has predetermined information necessary for transactions. After the request, the content server makes a request of a prepaid information management server for authentication to check whether the prepaid information medium is authorized to be used for the chargeable service, and for billing for the prepaid information medium. Then, the prepaid information management server authenticates the prepaid information medium and performs the billing for the prepaid information medium on the basis of usage of the chargeable service. If the authentication and the billing succeed, the content server provides the chargeable service to the terminal.

Abstract: A load balancing method and apparatus are provided, by which loads in a wide range of the entire system can be balanced with a small overhead with respect to load balancing processing, and the mean response time of the entire system can be shortened. The method has the steps of (i) estimating a load of the present node based on the number of tasks being or waiting to be processed and determining an estimated load value of the node; (ii) accepting a task passing through a logical ring network, and every time a task is accepted, comparing the estimated load value and a threshold value which is set with respect to the number of tasks existing in the node so as to limit the load of the node; and (iii) judging, based on a result of the comparison, whether the accepted task is handed over to a task processing unit, or is transmitted to the logical ring network again without handing over the task to the task processing unit.