known in the art the configuration of the protocol stack 190 can be published in the global names space as an interface to one or a set of class objects whose contents can be recognized through a native directory interface in operation when one of the client computing processes 110 a 110 b 110 n desires to establish a communicative link with the server computing process 130 the client computing process 110 a 110 b 110 n first can forward a query 100 to the server computing process 130 requesting that the server computing process 130 identify the preferred communications protocol configuration in response the server computing process 130 can return access to the protocol stack configuration 190 with which the requesting one of the client computing processes 110 a 110 b 110 n can select and configure the preferred communications protocol stack as defined by the protocol stack configuration 190 the process of configuring a client computing process to communicate with the server computing process using a preferred communications protocol configuration can include linking server side and client side protocols to one another in a mapping the process also can include starting a communications protocol stack in the server computing process and developing a corresponding publishable client side communications protocol stack configuration based upon the mapping finally the process can include selecting and configuring a specific protocol.