1. A system to load balance packetized data connections among a plurality of hosts comprising: a forwarding component that forwards packets according to entries in a routing table; a classifying component capable of classifying packets for the forwarding component and updating the forwarding component routing table according to packet content and host status information including a host's health and load information and wherein the classifying component is separate from the forwarding component to enhance scalability; a session tracking component that tracks sessions for at least one of the forwarding component and the classifying component; a health and load handling component that is capable of receiving health and load information from a host and providing the health and load information to the classifying component; and a high availability mechanism that provides detection of, handling of, and recovery from a failure of one or more of the forwarding component, the classifying component, the session tracking component, and the health and load handling component, and wherein once a packet in a connection has been classified subsequent packets in that connection bypass the classifying component and are sent directly to the host.