Patent Application

App. No. 11/553,787

Abstract

Claims (31)

1 . A method of blocking anonymous proxy traffic, comprising:

communicating a data stream between an electronic communication network and a user;

checking the data stream to determine whether the data stream is being sent over a defined port number;

testing the data stream that is not being sent over the defined port number to determine whether the data stream is a connected data stream;

blocking a user from receiving the connected data stream that is not being sent over the defined port number.

2 . A method as in claim 1 , further comprising the step of sending a redirected web page to the user when the connected data stream is blocked.

3 . A method as in claim 1 , further comprising the step of checking the data stream to determine whether the data stream is being sent over port 80 for HTTP.

4 . A method as in claim 1 , further comprising the step of checking the data stream to determine whether the data stream is being sent over port 21 for FTP.

5 . A method as in claim 1 , wherein the connected data stream can be a TCP data stream connected at the application level.

6 . A method as in claim 6 , further comprising the step of checking packet headers from the client to determine if HTTP traffic is being sent from the client and blocking the data stream if the data stream is not HTTP.

7 . A method as in claim 6 , further comprising the steps of checking packet headers from a server to determine whether a response to the connected data stream is HTTP and blocking the data stream if the data stream is not HTTP.

8 . A method for blocking anonymous proxy traffic, comprising:

receiving a data stream from a packet switching network;

checking the data stream to determine whether the data stream is being sent over a pre-defined port number;

testing data streams that are not being sent over the pre-defined port number to determine whether the data stream is a TCP data stream;

blocking a user from receiving a TCP data stream that is not being sent over the defined port number.

9 . A method as in claim 8 , further comprising the step of sending a redirected web page to the user when the TCP data stream is blocked.

10 . A method as in claim 8 , further comprising the step of checking the data stream to determine whether the data stream is being sent over port 80.

11 . A method as in claim 8 , further comprising the step of blocking a user by closing the server connection.

12 . A method as in claim 11 , further comprising the step of redirecting the client to a redirection web server.

13 . A method as in claim 12 , further comprising the step of formulating packets for the TCP data stream that contain information from a redirected web page.

14 . A method as in claim 8 , further comprising the step of applying content filtering to user traffic when the user traffic is HTTP traffic.

15 . A method as in claim 8 , further comprising the step of checking packet headers sent from the user to a server in order to determine whether the data stream is HTTP.

16 . A method as in claim 8 , further comprising the step of checking packet headers from a server to the user in order to determine whether the data stream is HTTP.

17 . A system for blocking anonymous proxy traffic, comprising:

a packet scanning device configured to check a data stream and determine whether the data stream is being sent over a pre-defined port number;

a testing module in communication with the packet scanning device to determine whether the data stream that is not sent over the pre-defined port number is a TCP data stream;

a blocking module in communication with the packet scanning device configured to stop a user from receiving a TCP data stream that is not being sent over the pre-defined port number.

18 . A system as in claim 17 , further comprising a redirection web server to which the blocking module redirects a TCP data stream to a redirection server upon determination that the data stream is not being sent over the pre-defined port number.

19 . A system as in claim 17 , wherein the defined port number is an HTTP port.

20 . A system as in claim 17 , further comprising a content filtering module can be configured to filter contents of the TCP data stream.

Assignments (10)