Contacting a broadcast channel

1. A method in a computer for locating a computer through which to connect to a network, the method comprising:

providing an identification of a portal computer or a plurality of portal computers, the portal computer or the plurality of portal computers having a communications port or communications ports with a call-in port being enabled for communications when the portal computer or the plurality of portal computers is in a state to coordinate the connection of a seeking computer to the network, wherein the call-in port is a type of communications port;

selecting the communications port or communications ports of the portal computer or the plurality of portal computers and attempting to communicate with the selected communications port or communications ports until communications with the call-in port is successful, wherein a port ordering algorithm is used to identify the call-in port, and wherein the communications ports selected by the port ordering algorithm may be re-ordered; and

using the call-in port to request that the portal computer or the plurality of portal computers coordinate the connecting of the seeking computer to the network.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the portal computer or the plurality of portal computers selects a call-in port, and further wherein the communications ports are selected in an order that is the same as used by the portal computer when it selected a call-in port.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the communications ports are selected based on a hashing algorithm ordering.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the hashing algorithm ordering provides an ordering in which each communications port is selected without re-selecting a communications port.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the hashing algorithm ordering is modified to reduce conflicts with other seeking computers that use the same hashing algorithm.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein a number of the first communications ports ordered by the hashing algorithm are reordered.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the identification of a plurality of portal computers is provided and when a communications port is selected, attempting to communicate with each of the identified portal computers through the selected communications port before selecting the next communications port.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the communications ports are TCP/IP ports.

9. A component in a computer system for locating a call-in port of a portal computer, comprising:

means for identifying the portal computer, the portal computer having a dynamically selected call-in port for communicating with other computers;

means for identifying the call-in port of the identified portal computer by repeatedly trying to establish a connection with the identified portal computer through contacting a communications port or communications ports until a connection is successfully established;

means for selecting the call-in port of the identified portal computer using a port ordering algorithm; and

means for re-ordering the communications ports selected by the port ordering algorithm.

10. The component of claim 9 wherein the communications ports are contacted in an order that is the same as that used by the portal computer when it dynamically selects a communications port.

11. The component of claim 9 wherein the communications ports are contacted based on a hashing algorithm ordering.

12. The component of claim 11 wherein the hashing algorithm ordering provides an ordering in which each communications port is tried without contacting a communications port more than once.

13. The component of claim 11 wherein the hashing algorithm ordering is modified to reduce conflicts with other computers that use the same hashing algorithm.

14. The component of claim 13 wherein a number of the first communications ports ordered by the hashing algorithm are reordered.

15. The component of claim 9 including:

means for identifying a plurality of portal computers; and

means for trying to establish a connection with each of the identified portal computers through a single communications port before trying the next communications port.

16. The component of claim 9 wherein the communications ports are TCP/IP ports.