A method and apparatus are disclosed for redirecting traffic associated with an application so that the traffic advantageously traverses (or “hairpins”) through an application-layer gateway. Because the present invention advantageously redirects traffic without any participation by routers, no changes to or replacement of routers in a network is required. The illustrative embodiment is disclosed in the context of Internet telephony, but is also applicable to other kinds of applications and types of communication (e.g., Internet Protocol Television [IPTV], instant messaging [IM], videoconferencing, etc.)