REQUESTING A SERVICE OR TRANSMITTING CONTENT AS A DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM RESOLVER

• US 20100005191A1
• Filed: 07/03/2008
• Published: 01/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Barracuda Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Barracuda Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Drako, Dean, Levow, Zachary
• Granted Patent: US 8,219,644 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/238
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]

Abstract

Requesting a service such as querying a database or communicating content by sending a plurality of arguments concatenated to a dns request and receiving a reply in the form of text or an IPv4 or an IPv6 address.

Claims

1. A method for requesting a service located on a network comprising:

concatenating a plurality of arguments;

prepending the query arguments to a host name to form a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) wherein a suffix is a dns server host;

and sending a query on the FQDN in a domain name system (DNS).

2. A method for querying a database comprising the following steps:

sending a dns request of class=IN;

concatenating a suffix comprising the host name serving the database to a plurality of query arguments to form a string formatted as a fully qualified domain name,

sending dns queryname=the fully qualified domain name to a domain name system; and

receiving at least one data value encoded within an IP address format as a dns query response from the domain name system but does not actually represent an IP address, wherein a fully qualified domain name comprises a plurality of labels separated by dots and ending with a domain, a dot, a top level domain.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising sending a dns request selected from the following:

type=A, type=AAAA, type=spf, type=CNAME, and type=TXT.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the IP address is one of two to the 32 power unique values of the IPv4 system (four octets).

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the IP address is one of two to the 128 power unique values of the IPv6 system (eight groups of 4 hexadecimal digits).

6. A method for querying a database comprising the following steps:

sending a dns request of class=IN;

concatenating a suffix comprising the host name serving the database to a plurality of query arguments to form a string formatted as a fully qualified domain name,

sending dns queryname=the fully qualified domain name to a domain name system; and

receiving at least one data value encoded within an IP address format as a dns query response from the domain name system but does not actually represent an IP address,

wherein a fully qualified domain name comprises a plurality of labels separated by dots and ending with a domain, a dot, a top level domain, wherein the dns query response is cached in a distributed domain name system and served to a dns resolver.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the IP address corresponds to a stored message which shall be displayed.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the IP address represents that an email should be allowed without spam scanning.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the IP address represents one of a subjective probability on a scale, an action suggested, and a degree of additional handling.

10. A method for requesting a service located on a network comprising:

concatenating a plurality of arguments;

prepending the query arguments to a host name to form a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) wherein a suffix is a dns server host;

and sending a query on the FQDN in a domain name system (DNS) wherein the arguments comprise at least one value to be used in a computation.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein a plurality of arguments comprises at least a first query term and a second query term separated by a dot.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein an argument comprises an authentication code, whereby billing records may be checked or updated and users of the database may be validated or rejected.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein an argument comprises an authentication code, whereby usage is tracked.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein an argument comprises an IP address.

15. A method for controlling an instrument located on a network comprising:

concatenating a plurality of arguments;

prepending the query arguments to a host name to form a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) wherein a suffix is a dns server host;

and sending a query on the FQDN in a domain name system (DNS) wherein an argument comprises an variable name variable, the method further comprising taking a measurement of the variable corresponding to the argument.

16. A method for controlling an instrument located on a network comprising:

concatenating a plurality of arguments;

prepending the query arguments to a host name to form a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) wherein a suffix is a dns server host;

and sending a query on the FQDN in a domain name system (DNS) wherein an argument comprises an variable name variable, the method further comprising sampling a value of the variable corresponding to the argument.

17. A method for controlling an instrument located on a network comprising:

concatenating a plurality of arguments;

prepending the query arguments to a host name to form a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) wherein a suffix is a dns server host;

and sending a query on the FQDN in a domain name system (DNS) wherein an argument comprises an variable name variable, the method further comprising applying a quantity, frequency, or probability of the variable corresponding to the argument.

18. A method comprising:

concatenating a plurality of arguments;

prepending the query arguments to a host name to form a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) wherein a suffix is a dns server host;

and sending a query on the FQDN in a domain name system (DNS) wherein an argument comprises a process which is to be initiated, stopped, delayed, or scheduled.

19. A method comprising:

concatenating a plurality of arguments;

prepending the query arguments to a host name to form a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) wherein a suffix is a dns server host;

and sending a query on the FQDN in a domain name system (DNS) wherein an argument comprises a text string to be relayed to a recipient.

20. A method comprising:

concatenating a plurality of arguments;

prepending the query arguments to a host name to form a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) wherein a suffix is a dns server host;

and sending a query on the FQDN in a domain name system (DNS) wherein an argument comprises wherein an argument comprises a numerical value.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein an argument comprises an input to a computational service.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein an argument comprises at least one of a universal product code, a stock keeping unit, and international standard book number.

23. The method of claim 20 wherein an argument comprises a license key.

24. The method of claim 20 wherein an argument comprises a standard query language query.

25. The method of claim 20 wherein an argument comprises one of a vote, a likelihood, a preference, and an agreement.

26. A method comprising:

concatenating a plurality of arguments;

prepending the query arguments to a host name to form a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) wherein a suffix is a dns server host;

and sending a query on the FQDN in a domain name system (DNS) wherein an argument comprises wherein an argument comprises data to be recorded into a storage apparatus.

27. A method comprising:

concatenating a plurality of arguments;

prepending the query arguments to a host name to form a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) wherein a suffix is a dns server host;

and sending a query on the FQDN in a domain name system (DNS) wherein an argument comprises wherein an argument signals that an activity has started, completed, or is on-going.

28. A method comprising:

concatenating a plurality of arguments;

prepending the query arguments to a host name to form a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) wherein a suffix is a dns server host;

and sending a query on the FQDN in a domain name system (DNS) wherein an argument comprises wherein an argument comprises a text string.

29. The method of claim 28 further comprising receiving access to intellectual property.

30. The method of claim 28 further comprising choosing a desired time, resource, location, or behavior.