Requesting web pages and content rating information

• US 10,033,830 B2
• Filed: 07/14/2016
• Issued: 07/24/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SonicWALL US Holdings, Inc. (SonicWall Holdings Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: SonicWALL, Inc. (SonicWall Holdings Ltd.)
• Inventors: Gmuender, John E., Dubrovsky, Alex M., Popov, Nikolay V., Shor, Alexander, Yanovsky, Roman, Zhu, Shunhui, Yanovsky, Boris
• Primary Examiner(s): Bibbee, Jared M
• Application Number:
  US15/210,259
• Publication Number:
  US 20160323415A1
• Time in Patent Office: 740 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0281 Proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70

Abstract

A method and an apparatus request web pages and content rating information thereof have been disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving a request from a user for a web page, retrieving content rating of the web page in response to the request, and fetching the web page substantially simultaneously with the retrieving of the content rating in response to the request. Other embodiments have been claimed and described.

Claims

1. A method for filtering a service request, the method comprising:

receiving a content rating domain name service (CR DNS) request for accessing a service at an authoritative server, the request sent from a computing device communicatively coupled to the authoritative server and a host computer having access to data related to the request that includes content rated by content rating information, wherein the data related to the request is to be sent to the computing device before a CR DNS response is received at the computing device;

executing instructions stored in memory, wherein the execution of the instructions by a processor of the authoritative server;

extracts a domain name or a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) from the request;

retrieves the content rating information relating to the request from a database coupled to the authoritative server, the retrieved content rating information based on the extracted domain name or URL;

encrypts the retrieved content rating information into the CR DNS response; and

sets a flag in the CR DNS response, the flag indicating that the CR DNS response is to be passed via a specified set of one or more DNS servers; and

sending the CR DNS response to the computing device via the network interface and via the specified set of one or more DNS servers based on the flag set in the CR DNS response, wherein the data related to the request is sent to the computing device before the CR DNS response is received at the computing device and client access to the data related to the request is either allowed or is blocked based on the content rating information included in the CR DNS response.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the CR DNS request is received over a direct connection that connects the authoritative server over the internet to at least one of a content filtering client, a personal computer, a workstation, and a gateway server.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the CR DNS request is received via one or more DNS servers and the computing device identifies that the data is allowed be sent to a client device based on the rated content and the content rating information included in the CR DNS request.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the flag in the CR DNS response identifies that the specified set of one or more DNS servers corresponds to the one or more DNS servers that receive the CR DNS request.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the CR DNS response is passed through the one or more DNS servers based on the flag.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein at least one of the one or more DNS servers store in a local cache information corresponding to the CR DNS response including the flag.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the data related to the request is received from the host computer at the computing device before the CR DNS request is sent from the authoritative server, the computing device holding at least a portion of data received from the host computer until after the CR DNS response is sent by the authoritative server, the computing device identifies whether a client device is allowed to receive the requested data based at least in part on the content rating information included in the CR DNS response, and the at least portion of the data held at the computing device is sent to the client device when the client device is identified as being allowed to receive the requested data.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embodied thereon a program executable by a processor or implementing a method for filtering a service request, the method comprising:

receiving a content rating domain name service (CR DNS) request for accessing a service at an authoritative server, the request sent from a computing device communicatively coupled to the authoritative server and a host computer having access to data related to the request, the data related to the request including content rated by content rating information, wherein the data related to the request is to be received at the computing device before a CR DNS response is sent to the computing device;

extracting a domain name or a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) from the request;

retrieving the content rating information relating to the request from a database coupled to the authoritative server, the retrieved content rating information based on the extracted domain name or URL;

encrypting the retrieved content rating information into a CR DNS response;

setting a flag in the CR DNS response, the flag indicating that the CR DNS response is to be passed via a specified set of one or more DNS servers; and

sending the CR DNS response to the computing device via the specified set of one or more DNS servers based on the flag set in the CR DNS response, wherein the data related to the request is sent to the computing device before the CR DNS response is received at the computing device and client access to the data related to the request is either allowed or is blocked based on the content rating information included in the CR DNS response.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the CR DNS request is received over a direct connection that connects the authoritative server over the internet to at least one of a content filtering client, a personal computer, a workstation, and a gateway server.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the CR DNS request is received via one or more DNS servers and the computing device identifies that the data is allowed be sent to a client device based on the rated content and the content rating information included in the CR DNS request.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the flag in the CR DNS response identifies that the specified set of one or more DNS servers corresponds to the one or more DNS servers that receive the CR DNS request.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the CR DNS response is passed through the one or more DNS servers based on the flag.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein at least one of the one or more DNS servers store in a local cache information corresponding to the CR DNS response.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the data related to the request is received from the host computer at the computing device before the CR DNS request is sent from the authoritative server, the computing device holding at least a portion of data received from the host computer until after the CR DNS response is sent by the authoritative server, the computing device identifies whether a client device is allowed to receive the requested data based at least in part on the content rating information included in the CR DNS response, and the at least portion of the data held at the computing device is sent to the client device when the client device is identified as being allowed to receive the requested data.

13. An apparatus for filtering a service request, the apparatus comprising:

an authoritative server comprising;

a communication interface that receives a content rating domain name service (CR DNS) request for accessing a service for accessing data that includes content rated by content rating information, the request from a computing device; and

a processor that executes instructions stored in memory, wherein execution of the instructions by the processor;

extracts a domain name or a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) from the request,

retrieves the content rating information relating to the request from a database coupled to the authoritative server, the retrieved content rating information based on the extracted domain name or URL,

encrypts the retrieved content rating information into a CR DNS response for transmission over the network communications interface, and

sets a flag in the CR DNS response, the flag indicating that the CR DNS response is to be passed via a specified set of one or more DNS servers, wherein the CR DNS response is transmitted to the computing device via the communication interface and via the specified set of one or more DNS servers based on the flag set in the CR DNS response, wherein;

the computing device is communicatively coupled to the authoritative server and a host computer having access to data related to the request,

the data related to the request is to be sent to the computing device before the CR DNS response is sent to the computing device,

the data related to the request is sent to the computing device before the CR DNS response is received at the computing device, and

client access to the data related to the request is either allowed or is blocked based on the content rating information included in the CR DNS response.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the network communication network is directly connected to the internet to at least one of a content filtering client, a personal computer, a workstation, and a gateway server.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the CR DNS request is received via one or more DNS servers and the computing device identifies that the data is allowed be sent to a client device based on the rated content and the content rating information included in the CR DNS request.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the flag in the CR DNS response identifies that the specified set of one or more DNS servers corresponds to the one or more DNS servers that receive the CR DNS request.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the CR DNS response is passed through the one or more DNS servers based on the flag.

20. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the data related to the request is received from the host computer at the computing device before the CR DNS request is sent from the authoritative server, the computing device holding at least a portion of data received from the host computer until after the CR DNS response is sent by the authoritative server, the computing device identifies whether a client device is allowed to receive the requested data based at least in part on the content rating information included in the CR DNS response, and the at least portion of the data held at the computing device is sent to the client device when the client device is identified as being allowed to receive the requested data.