1. A method for using a network device having an operating system instance that operates in a plurality of routing contexts, the method comprising: associating a first network with a first routing context and a second network with a second routing context, wherein the first context is isolated from the second context; receiving, at the same networking address of the network device, a first message originating from the first network and a second message originating from the second network by the network device; assigning to the first message a first routing context number, wherein the first message is determined to be associated with the first routing context using the first routing context number; associating the first message with a first application running on the operating system instance of the network device based on a determination that the first message is associated with the first routing context; associating the second message with a second application running on the operating system instance based on a determination that the second message is associated with the second routing context; associating at least one of a process and a socket with the first routing context providing heritability of the first routing context information; and processing the first message with one of a plurality of processors implementing a distributed host on the network device.