Method and apparatus for providing remote site administrators with user hits on mirrored web sites

• US 5,935,207 A
• Filed: 04/09/1997
• Issued: 08/10/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Rovi Technologies Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: WebTV Networks Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Mighdoll, Lee S., Logue, Jay D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung, Zarni
• Assistant Examiner(s): Winder, Patrice L.
• Application Number:
  US08/827,643
• Time in Patent Office: 853 Days
• Field of Search: 395/200.41, 395/200.42, 395/200.43, 395/200.44, 395/200.45, 395/200.46, 395/200.47, 395/200.48, 395/200.49, 395/200.54, 395/200.5 9, 705/10, 705/26, 707/513, 711/118, 711/124, 709/203, 709/229, 709/217, 709/218, 709/219, 710/10
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/222 using geographical location information, e.g. messages transmitted or received in proximity of a certain spot or area
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/288 Distributed intermediate devices, i.e. intermediate devices for interaction with other intermediate devices on the same level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/22 Automatic class or number identification arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42059 Making use of the calling party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/40 using video transcoding, i.e. partial or full decoding of a coded input stream followed by re-encoding of the decoded output stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/46 Embedding additional information in the video signal during the compression process H04N19/517, H04N19/68, H04N19/70 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2356 by altering the spatial resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2541 Rights Management protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25808 Management of client data terminal profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/303
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25875 involving end-user authentication restricting access to computer systems by authenticating users using a predetermined code G06F21/33; arrangements for secret or secure communication including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 : being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2662 : Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 : Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 : Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 : Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 : End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 : Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 : Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4786 : e-mailing message switching systems, e.g. electronic mail systems H04L51/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8166 : involving executable data, e.g. software arrangements for executing specific programs G06F9/44; broadcasting computer programmes in broadcast systems H04H20/91; involving the movement of software or configuration parameters H04L67/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/602 : for digital sound signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/088 : the inserted signal being digital

Abstract

A method and apparatus for providing mirrored site administrators with the number of hits from a proxy'"'"'s document cache and for dispatching document requests in a proxy to more efficiently allocate the document cache space within the proxy are provided. A proxy includes a document cache storing recently requested documents. The proxy is coupled to a client and to a remote server. The proxy maintains information regarding requests from the client that are serviced from the proxy'"'"'s document cache such as the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the requested document and the number of cached responses. This information is provided by the proxy to a remote site administrator. In this manner, remote site administrators can more accurately track total hits.

Claims

1. A method of tracking hits in a proxy, the proxy including a document cache having stored therein recently requested documents, the proxy coupled to a client and to a remote server, the method comprising the steps of:

the proxy maintaining information regarding client requests that are serviced from the document cache;

the proxy receiving a client request for a document;

the proxy determining whether to service the client request from its document cache or whether to forward the client request to another server;

updating a count if the client request is serviced from the document cache; and

the proxy providing the information to a remote site administrator.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the information includes a count representing the number of times client requests for a particular document have been serviced from the document cache.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the information includes a timestamp identifying a time period to which the count corresponds.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote site administrator requests the information from the proxy thereby initiating the step of providing the information to a remote site administrator.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the information provided to the remote site administrator is in the form of an Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) report.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the proxy authenticates the remote site administrator'"'"'s request prior to the step of providing the information to a remote site administrator.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of providing the information to a remote site administrator further includes the step of the proxy transmitting unsolicited information from the proxy to the remote site administrator.

8. In a system having a hit accumulation server and one or more proxy servers, each of said one or more proxy servers including a local cache having stored therein one or more cached documents, the proxy coupled to a client and to a remote server, a method of tracking requests for documents stored in a proxy comprising the steps of:

a proxy server receiving a client request for a document;

the proxy recording a hit for the document if the document is available from the proxy server'"'"'s local cache, the proxy server notifying the hit accumulation server that the client request was serviced from the local cache, and the hit accumulation server recording the hit and a path of the document to a table if the document corresponds to one of a set of monitored Uniform Resource Locator (URL) patterns; and

providing an indication of the number of hits for the documents to a remote site administrator.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of the proxy server notifying the accumulation server further includes the steps of:

the accumulation server monitoring a common storage device, the common storage device accessible to the one or more proxy servers; and

the proxy server logging an entry to the common storage device if the proxy server services the client request from its local cache, the entry including a URL for the document requested by the client.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the set of monitored URL patterns represents one or more directories on a remote site for which document hits are to be tracked, the method further including the steps of:

the accumulation server detecting the entry; and

the accumulation server comparing the URL in the entry to the set of monitored URL patterns to determine whether or not to record the hit.

11. A method of tracking hits by a proxy, the proxy including one or more proxy servers and a hit accumulation server, each of said one or more proxy servers including a local cache having stored therein recently requested documents, the proxy coupled to a client and to a remote server, the method comprising the steps of:

a proxy server receiving a client request for a document;

the proxy server determining whether to service the client request from its local cache or whether to forward the client request to another server;

inserting a new log entry onto a common storage if the proxy server services the client request from its local cache, the new log entry including a location of the document;

the accumulation server detecting the new log entry by monitoring the common storage;

the accumulation server comparing the location of the document to a predetermined set of directories to determine whether or not to record the hit;

recording the hit if the location of the document matches a directory in the predetermined set of directories; and

providing the number of hits for a set of documents located in a first subset of directories of the predetermined set of directories to a remote site administrator.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the common storage comprises a hit log.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the location of the document comprises a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

14. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon data representing sequences of instructions, said sequences of instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause said processor to perform the steps of:

maintaining information regarding client requests that are serviced from a document cache of a proxy server;

receiving a client request for a document;

determining whether to service the client request from the document cache or whether to forward the client request to another server;

updating a count if the client request is serviced from the document cache; and

providing the information to a remote site administrator.

15. The machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the information includes a count representing the number of times client requests for a particular document have been serviced from the document cache.

16. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the information includes a timestamp identifying a time period to which the count corresponds.