referring to fig1 and 2 , during the course of processing of an application at a client 10 , the need arises to evoke a specific object 20 remotely located at the server 12 . the ior ( interceptable object reference ) 16 associated with the targeted object is pushed to the orb ( object request broker ) 18 . the ior contains information 32 about the type of object being referenced and one or more profiles 34 . each profile represent a protocol , i . e ., a way to contact another computer , typically a server . iiop and tcp are a typical protocols . for secure communication iiop / ssl is a typical protocol . a profile may contain one or more components . components are typically communication processes that perform on top of or in conjunction with a protocol . for example , where communication must pass a proxy such as a firewall , the proxy server is indicated as a component of the profile , and the specified protocol , e . g . iiop , will operate under or using the gatekeeper . another example is where the communication must be secure , ssl may be indicated as a component to be used with a protocol e . g . tcp . the term protocol is used broadly so as to include components such as a proxy server and ssl as well as independent protocols such as tcp and iiop . at the client there is are protocol modules 22 each containing the instructions ( i . e . code ) for operating a particular protocol to establish communication between the two computers ( e . g ., client and server ). furthermore , each protocol module has an associated bidder 24 , containing logic for generating a bid according to the ior 16 , the setting of the configuration 26 , user preferences 38 and target object constraints 36 . target object constraints are name value pairs , for example , “ always secure , true ” is an example of a typical target constraint . when the orb at the client receives the ior specifying multiple protocols , it must determine which protocol to use . the one or more protocols are individually identified in the ior in its profiles . each protocol bidder check the profiles in the ior to determine whether is recognizes any of them . if it recognizes one of the profiles it submits a bid . if it does not recognize any of the profiles , it does not submit a bid . alternatively , the orb solicits bids from each protocol bidder is registered with the orb . each protocol bidder determines the value of the bid to submit either from the information previously defined by the user in its configuration 26 or by using the default value . the default values are assigned to the protocol modules or bidders at the time the protocol module is established . if the user wants to specify that certain protocol be used under certain circumstances , the user sets the configuration 26 at the client . the configuration includes properties that relate to the use of the protocols . the user specifies how the protocols should be used by setting these properties in the configuration . for example , if the user want to specify that all communications must be transmitted over a secure protocol , the user sets the always_secure property . another property is called alway_proxy which indicates that all communications must pass through the gateway . the bid value is determined based on the properties settings in a predefined manner . if always_secure is set then ssl protocol submits a very low value , so that it gets priority over the other protocols . in addition , if alway_secure is set then the protocols which do not provide secure communication will not submit a bid because otherwise , if the ssl protocol fails then an insecure protocol will be tried , contrary to the property setting . if no properties are set or if a protocol is not affected by the specified properties , then the default values are submitted . instances where a protocol does not submit a bid include where the property settings preclude the protocol or where the protocol does not recognize the definitions in the profiles . the submitted bids are entered into a table called a portfolio . the bids are typically ordered in ascending order . to establish a connection to the server , the protocol associated with the lowest bid ( highest preference or priority ) is processed . if communication fails , the orb processes the protocol associated with the next bid in the portfolio . in a preferred embodiment , the portfolio is subdivided into a plurality of ranges . each range is associated with a predefined rule reflecting its priority relative to the other ranges . for example there may be three ranges , named critical , exclusive , and normal . the critical range is defined by the rule that the protocols submitting bids within this range have the highest priority and are to be tried first . an in - process ( i . e ., a co - located object ) transport is typically assigned a bid within the critical range . the exclusive range is defined by the rule that the protocols submitting bids within lower ranking ranges are not processed even if all the exclusive protocols are unsuccessful . for example , ssl is typically assigned a bid within exclusive range . the normal range is defined so that only if there are no bids submitted to the exclusive range will the protocols in the normal range be processed . to implement this range system , the configuration has settings in addition to or instead of properties . the configuration provides for an order list of protocols where the user may define the order of priority among protocols that bid within a single range . in addition , the configuration provides for user defined lists for each range other than normal . continuing with the example of three ranges described above , the configuration includes an exclusivity list and a critical list . when determining a bid value for a protocol , the protocol bidder references the configuration 26 , target object constraints 36 , and user preferences 38 . if the protocol is listed on the exclusivity list , then the bid value with be set within the exclusivity range 44 and entered into the portfolio 40 . if a protocol is listed on the critical list , the associated bid value will be within the critical range 42 . for protocols not listed , the bid value will be set within the normal range 46 . finally , the priority list is referenced and the bid values within a range are adjusted so that the order defined by the priority list is preserved . it should be understood by one skilled in the art that determining the bid value may be performed in one step or a series of steps without any impact on the invention . since the selection of protocols is determined by the configuration which may be defined by the user , the selection process is dynamic in contrast to a process fixed at the time the application at the client is compiled . while the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to a preferred embodiment thereof , it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention .