A system and method allowing engineers to create large scale, consumer oriented, distributed applications that utilize peer to peer messaging patterns and service oriented architectures. Software architecture (100) includes a host infrastructure (102), a service and messaging infrastructure (104), a content distribution component (116), an internet peering component (188), one or more application services (106), and one or more agent applications (108). Applications built using the method produce operational cost curves typical of successful peer to peer systems. The system includes mechanisms to deal with reliably and securely sending messages over consumer grade networks that are inherently unreliable and insecure while still permitting direct, consumer-to-consumer messaging by virtue of an extensible Network Address Translation traversal strategy. The system and method allows for the creation of consumer applications by facilitating the identification, location and assembly of services running in a network on a plurality of devices. While the application of the system and method to the distribution of large digital media is readily apparent, the system and method is, in no way, limited to this domain.
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