Disclosed herein, among others, is a media streaming system, comprising a registrar server, a media stream providing device, and a media stream receiving device. The registrar server is configured to register a piece of connection information associated with the media stream providing device, the connection information comprising a local network location, a public network location, a broker location, and a proxy location. The media stream receiving device is configured to obtain the connection information from the registrar server, and to commence measuring simultaneously, based on the aforementioned locations, first, second, third, and fourth costs for connecting to the media stream providing device via a local path, a remote path, a peer-to-peer path, and a proxy-assisted path, respectively. The media stream receiving device then selects one of those paths based on the measured costs.