System and method for name resolution

A method of publishing documents between a plurality of nodes, the nodes connected in a network environment, said method comprising:

• sending an identity information document from a publishing node to an accessing node, the identity information document comprising a user-friendly handle identifying a principal and a machine location for the publishing node;
• storing the identity information document on the accessing node;
• resolving the user-friendly handle with the machine location in a request for access to documents, wherein the request is made from the accessing node to the publishing node;
• and
• sending the request for access to documents from the accessing node to the publishing node.

A method of using a user-friendly handle to access documents stored on a first computer system in a network environment, the method comprising:

• storing an identity information document from the first computer system, the identity information document comprising a user-friendly handle identifying a principal and a machine location for the first computer system;
• intercepting a request for access to documents in the form of the user-friendly handle;
• amending the request to replace the user-friendly handle with the machine location;
• and
• sending the amended request to access the documents to the machine location of the first computer system.

A computer readable medium encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process for name resolution, said computer process comprising:

• storing an identity information document from a publishing computer system, the identity information document comprising a user-friendly handle identifying a principal and a machine location for the publishing computer system;
• intercepting a request for access to documents stored on the publishing computer system, wherein the request contains the user-friendly handle;
• and
• amending the request to replace the user-friendly handle with the machine location.