Public network access server having a user-configurable firewall

• US 20050120247A1
• Filed: 12/13/2004
• Published: 06/02/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: America Online Inc. (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)
• Inventors: Barrett, Joseph G.
• Granted Patent: US 8,011,000 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/44 Program or device authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/02 for separating internal from external traffic, e.g. firewalls
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0227 Filtering policies mail message filtering H04L51/212
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227

Abstract

A user-configurable firewall and method in which a user-changeable security setting for a client computer is maintained by an access server through which a user accesses the public network. The user-changeable security setting can be used to specify which outside computers or network devices may access the client computer and what type of access to the client computer is allowed. If an attempt to access the client computer is made, the user-configurable security setting is checked to determine if the attempted access is allowed by the current security setting. If the attempted access is allowed by the current security setting, access is allowed to the client computer; otherwise, access is not allowed. If the user changes the user-configurable security setting, the changes to the user-configurable security setting are provided to the access server.

Claims

1. A method of controlling access to a client computer connected to a network by a server, the method comprising:

maintaining at the server a user-changeable security setting for the client computer; and

selectively granting access to the client computer from the network if allowed by the user-changeable security setting.

2-45. -45. (canceled)