METHOD FOR PROCESSING A REQUEST FOR ACCESS TO A DATA NETWORK

A network access arrangement for connecting an end user's computer to the Internet includes a network access server and a proxy server. When an end user requests to be connected to the Internet, the network access server forwards the access request to the proxy server. The proxy server authenticates some requests itself but forwards other requests to authentication servers for authentication. After receiving a response from one of the servers, the proxy server forwards the response to the network access server. If the proxy server does not receive a response from one of the authentication servers, it follows a default procedure. This can be to authenticate the request in the proxy server or simply to accept the request. The proxy server has a counter associated with each of the servers. Each time the proxy server receives a response from one of the servers, it decrements the appropriate counter. Each time it does not receive a response, it increments the appropriate counter. When one of the counters reaches a threshold value, the proxy server then follows the default procedure for a pre-set number of requests which would normally be forwarded to the appropriate server. After following the default procedure for this predetermined number of access requests, the proxy server forwards the next access requests, which would normally be forwarded to the relevant server, to that server.