A client-side load balancer replaces standard name serving functions. An operating system on client machine receives a command to start a client application. The command includes a command line argument (a switch) based on which the operating system also starts the client-side load balancer, which intercepts name service requests. The client-side load balancer controls a cache memory with a list of IP addresses of available servers that are associated with a URL for a particular service request. In response to successive name service requests for the URL, the client-side load balancer provides IP addresses from the list in a strictly repetitive order. The order may be a Round Robin order, or any permutation of a Round Robin order.