1. A method for establishing a communications link between at least one pair of computer systems within a distributed system, which includes a plurality of computer systems interconnected to one another along a communications network, said method comprising the steps of: executing an applications program within a source system to extract therefrom destination information identifying a destination system; determining a protocol identifier based on the destination information derived from execution of said applications program; determining an application context identifier based on said protocol identifier; completing a communications path between the source and destination systems based on said protocol and application context identifiers.