Apparatus and method for blocking a link to an unwholesome site in internet

• US 20010037385A1
• Filed: 03/08/2001
• Published: 11/01/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Planty Net Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Planty Net Company Limited
• Inventors: Kim, Tae-Ju
• Granted Patent: US 6,934,753 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

An unwholesome site blocking apparatus and method for blocking access to unwholesome information by central control at a network provider'"'"'s side according to the subscriber'"'"'s requests, thereby reduces the time and expenditure for managing the access in the subscriber'"'"'s side and allows using the Internet safely. The apparatus comprises a central control center for specifying and providing a control list of unwholesome sites to be blocked and managing subscribers, a plurality of remote control units disposed between Internet Service Providers(ISP) and subscribers for blocking an access to the unwholesome sites on the basis of the control list to be blocked supplied from the central control center when the subscriber attempts to access to unwholesome sites, and a link control network for controlling the connection of the plurality of remote control units and the central control center. When the subscriber attempts to connect to a certain Internet site, the remote control unit compares the lists of the unwholesome sites specified by the central control center with the destination URL and determines whether the subscriber attempts to connect to an unwholesome information site. If it is determined that the subscriber attempts to connect to a unwholesome information site, then the remote control unit transmits a message of non-allowance. Otherwise, the remote control unit transmits a connecting information to the Internet Service Provider(ISP) in which the customer subscribed and allows the desired Internet connection.

Claims

1. An apparatus for blocking an unwholesome site comprising:

a central control center for specifying and providing control lists of unwholesome sites to be blocked and managing subscribers;

a plurality of remote control units disposed between Internet Service Providers(ISP) and subscribers for blocking an access to the unwholesome sites on the basis of the control lists to be blocked supplied from the central control center when the subscriber attempts to access to an unwholesome site; and

a link control network for controlling the connection of the plurality of remote control units and the central control center.

2. The apparatus according to

claim 1

, wherein the central control center comprises:

a central control system for searching and recording the unwholesome information sites to be blocked in real time and for supplying the lists of recorded unwholesome information sites to the remote control units;

a search system for searching out the unwholesome information sites; and

a block list system for classifying, recording, sustaining, managing or changing the lists of the Internet sites of the unwholesome information searched out by the search system.

3. The apparatus according to

claim 2

, wherein the search system comprises:

an automatic search system, including a web-robot for extracting all information of documents supplied on the Internet and an expert engine for checking the contents of the information extracted by the web-robot and extracting a list information of the site containing unwholesome information, for automatically referring to the contents of sites registered into the Internet and for extracting any sites containing an unwholesome information; and

a manual search system for searching any sites containing unwholesome information manually by person.

4. The apparatus according to

claim 2

, wherein the block list system comprises:

a database system for storing lists of unwholesome information sites to be blocked, collecting an initial data and constructing a database by grading the collected data according to URL to be blocked,

a classification system for determining whether an associated site is an unwholesome site on the basis of site information supplied from the search system; and

a management system for managing the lists of the recorded unwholesome sites such as categories, sites, ratings, representative words and deleting invalid sites.

5. The apparatus according to

claim 3

, wherein the web-robot extracts all information of documents located on the Internet, investigates the redundancy of the incoming information and avoids the users from devoting one site for an excessive long time.

6. The apparatus according to

claim 1

, wherein the remote control unit comprises:

a blocking control server, coupled to the central control center, for specifying a block list and controlling the Internet connection by subscribers;

a connection block list DB for storing the lists of unwholesome information sites received from the central control center; and

an expert engine for analyzing a type of utilizing information by the subscribers and for transmitting the information to the central control center when the information is one to be blocked.

7. A method of blocking the connection to an unwholesome site when a subscriber attempts to connect to the unwholesome site, comprising:

a first step of, when a Internet user subscribes to a link block service, registering information regarding to the user and providing the information to a remote control unit;

a second step of, when the registered subscriber attempts to access to a certain site through the Internet, comparing the lists of the unwholesome sites constituted by the central control center and a destination URL, and determining whether the subscriber attempts to access to unwholesome information sites;

a third step of, when the access address of the subscriber is contained in the lists of the unwholesome sites, determining that the subscriber attempts to access to the unwholesome sites, and transmitting a message indicating non-allowable site to the subscriber'"'"'s terminal; and

a fourth step of, when the access address of the subscriber is not contained in the lists of the unwholesome sites, providing a message of allowance to an Internet Service Provider to which the subscriber is registered, and establishing a link between the Internet Service Provider and the subscriber'"'"'s terminal,

wherein the second step to the fourth step are repeated whenever the subscriber attempts to access on the Internet.

8. The method according to

claim 7

, further comprising:

a fifth step of preparing an initial control list DB;

a sixth step of investigating whether the control list contains unwholesome information and classifying the control list;

a seventh step of updating the control list DB by changing the control list into a converted data based on the investigated results and the classified results;

an eighth step of checking the validity of each site in the control list; and

a ninth step of updating the control list DB by deleting invalid sites, wherein the control list is specified by repeating said sixth step to said ninth step after preparing the initial control list.