COMPUTER HARDWARE AND COMPUTER SOFTWARE IN THE FIELDS OF NETWORK SECURITY; VIRUS DETECTION AND PROTECTION; INTERNET TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT; INTERNET TRAFFIC REDIRECTION; HIGH AVAILABILITY BANDWIDTH MANAGEMENT; FIREWALLS; PROTECTION AGAINST ATTACK SIGNATURES; AND PROTECTION AGAINST NETWORK BASED SCANNING; PROVISION OF HIGH AVAILABILITY AND LOAD BALANCING FOR CONTENT SCREENERS, NAMELY, ANTI-VIRUS GATEWAY SOFTWARE AND URL CONTENT FILTER SOFTWARE OPERATING IN COMPUTER NETWORKS; LOAD BALANCING AND FAULT TOLERANCE FOR A FEW PROXY SERVERS, AND ENABLES PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS BY REDIRECTING HTTP REQUESTS TO PROPER CACHE SERVERS; OFF LOADING OF CPU INTENSIVE SECURE SOCKET LAYER (SSL) CALCULATIONS; PROVIDING NETWORK ADDRESS TRANSLATIONS AND FOR ASSIGNING TRANSLATED ADDRESSES ACCORDING TO A CHOSEN OPTICAL PATH TO A GLOBAL COMPUTER NETWORK WIDE AREA; AND, TRAFFIC DISTRIBUTION BETWEEN REMOTE SITES; OPTIMIZATION OF MULTIPLE ISP LINKS, NAMELY, INTERNET BANDWIDTH ALLOCATION MANAGEMENT ACROSS SUBNETS AND APPLICATIONS; LOAD BALANCING, FAULT TOLERANCE AND HEALTH MONITORING OF GLOBAL COMPUTER NETWORK FARMS AS WELL AS BANDWIDTH MANAGEMENT AND ENHANCED SECURITY SERVICES FOR THOSE FARMS