APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR TRANSPARENT SELECTION OF AN INTERNET SERVER BASED ON GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION OF A USER

This invention is an apparatus and a method that selects the optimum location of a service on the Internet according to the user's geo-location and the configuration of the invention by transparently altering the DNS messages. In the preferred embodiment, the invention operates at OSI model's data link layer and it is located in front of the DNS server so that it does not require any modification in the existing DNS or IP network setup or on the application servers. It provides a fast and transparent method of locating an Internet service without the overhead of server scripts, HTTP redirects, or extra steps by the user to find the desired location or content.