Systems and methods for direction of communication traffic

• US 7,631,101 B2
• Filed: 11/01/2006
• Issued: 12/08/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Bushnell Hawthorne, LLC
• Original Assignee: Paxfire, Inc.
• Inventors: SULLIVAN, Alan T., Lewyn, Mark, Gross, Phillip
• Primary Examiner(s): Pwu, Jeffrey
• Assistant Examiner(s): LI, GUANG W
• Application Number:
  US11/555,386
• Publication Number:
  US 20070038729A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,133 Days
• Field of Search: 709/245, 709238-244, 709/203, 714/25
• US Class Current: 709/245
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

An Internet traffic redirection architecture is disclosed that allows for directing of trash traffic to specified sites. The system or method allows a controller, such as an ISP, to benefit from mistyped Internet addresses so that participating partners of the ISP are presented to the customer when the requests a web site that is not found or does not exist. The system decreases lost traffic by means of capturing unresolved “trash” traffic on the Internet and redirecting said traffic to a search engine partner and/or other partners.

Claims

1. A method for directing communication, the method comprising:

receiving a request from an Internet user for a specific website;

relaying the request to a domain name system (DNS) server to determine the Internet address for the website;

responding to the request by providing a response containing an Internet address when the requested Internet address for the website is resolved by the DNS;

if an Internet address for the requested website is not resolved by the DNS, performing the following actions;

determining if the request is a request other than one associated with the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) by intercepting the request at a name level;

if the request is not associated with HTTP, forwarding to the Internet user an error response for the request;

for all other requests;

directing the Internet user to a predetermined search network and returning a contrived IP address for a web server landing page in place of the unresolved domain name request;

choosing at least one appropriate target through the search network;

sending a request for information to that at least one target;

receiving from the at least one target the requested information; and

providing a result page to the Internet user, the result page being a culmination of information received from the at least one target,

wherein the actions that are performed when the requested website is not resolved by the DNS are not performed by the Internet user'"'"'s computer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the targets are predetermined partners and associated with the DNS server.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein all steps occur within an Internet structure.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the Internet user the ability to opt-out of failed lookup redirection.

5. The method of claim 1, which is a method of controlling communication traffic, wherein said method provides one or more of the following services:

DNS forwarding, URL filtering, DDOS attack detection, and SPAM source identification.

6. The method of claim 1, which is a method of controlling access by a user to an undesirable website, wherein said method further comprises:

identifying an IP address, a URL, or both, corresponding to the undesirable website, wherein the IP address is provided by a DNS server connected to the Internet; and

supplying to the user a different IP address than the IP address corresponding to the undesirable website,

wherein the different IP address corresponds to a web page that provides the user content that is relevant to the query that resulted in return of the undesirable website IP address.

7. The method of claim 6, which is a method of URL filtering.

8. A computer system for direction of communication traffic, said system comprising:

a server in the DNS;

a first device that;

receives and analyzes communications from a computer user and the DNS server; and

determines if a communication is associated with a protocol other than HTTP, wherein, only if the communication is not associated with a protocol other than HTTP and is an unresolved, unwanted, unused, improper, or incorrect communication, communicates with a second device,

if the request is not associated with HTTP, forwarding to the Internet user an error response for the request;

for all other requests;

directing the Internet user to a predetermined search network by returning a contrived IP address for a web server landing page in place of the unresolved domain name request;

choosing at least one appropriate target through the search network;

sending a request for information to that at least one target; and

receiving from the at least one target the requested information; and

a second device that creates the landing page for the computer user based on information supplied to it by the first device,

wherein the landing page provides a culmination of information received from a communication from the first device relating to the requested information from the at least one target,

wherein the information supplied by the first device is information indicating that the communication from the user was unresolved, unwanted, unused, improper, or incorrect, and wherein the information was obtained by intercepting the communication from the user at a name level, and

wherein none of the DNS server, the first device, or the second device is the computer user'"'"'s computer.

9. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the first device is interposed, within the communication pathway, between the user and the DNS, and wherein the first device is capable of intercepting and analyzing communications between the user and the DNS.

10. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the system comprises two or more second devices.

11. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the system is implemented at the ISP/DNS level of the Internet architecture, and not at the user level or the registry level.

12. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the first device is a general services sewer that can implement one or more computer applications.

13. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the first device and the DNS sewer are the same device.

14. The computer system of claim 8, which provides one or more of the following services:

DNS forwarding, URL filtering, DDOS attack detection, and SPAM source identification.