A method and system for querying a plurality of IGMP hosts supported by an IGMP router wherein the IGMP router logically subdivides the plurality of IGMP hosts into groups of hosts. Each group of hosts contains one or more IGMP hosts. The IGMP router sends the GMQ signal to one group of hosts at a time and the GMQs are sent at regularly spaced-apart times throughout a GMQ interval predetermined for the IGMP router. The IGMP router processes the membership report after receiving a membership report from an IGMP host. The time spacing between adjacent GMQs is equal to the length of the GMQ interval divided by the number of groups of hosts. Each group of hosts is maintained to have at least a selected number of hosts.