Performing failover in a redundancy group

A system and computer program product for performing failover in a redundancy group, where the redundancy group comprises a plurality of routers including an active router and a standby router, the failover being characterized by zero black hole or significantly reduced black hole conditions versus a conventional failover system. The system comprises a processing unit connected to the memory and adapted to execute the plurality of instructions, which cause an information appliance to: receive an incoming message at a switch; send a request of identification to the plurality of routers to identify a current active router, where the current active router represents a virtual router of the redundancy group; and in response to receiving a reply containing an identification from the current active router within a predetermined time, forward the incoming message to the current active router.