A cluster of devices is provided that shares a domain name and functions as the authoritative name server for the domain. Each device or node in the cluster would typically repeatedly announce status information to all the other nodes in the cluster, such that all the nodes in the cluster are aware of the status information of all other nodes. One of the nodes in the cluster would be designated as a master node. The master node would be assigned an IP address as an authoritative name server, and as such would receive DNS queries for the domain. The master node would select one of the nodes in the cluster to communicate with the client as a result of the DNS query, using the status information of each of the nodes to balance the load on the nodes. The master node would communicate the IP address of the selected node.