Controlling and Monitoring Propagation Within a Network

1 . A computerized method for propagation protection within a network, the method comprising:

sending, by a management station, an event message to a transparent network appliance, the event message comprising a command for the transparent network appliance to shape traffic being transmitted through the transparent network appliance; and

receiving, by the management station, statistical information from the transparent network appliance relating to the traffic being transmitted through the transparent network device.

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the management station is located within a network in which the transparent network appliance is located.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating, by the management station, a graphical user interface and user interface elements to shape the traffic being transmitted through the transparent network appliance.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein generating comprises generating user interface elements to prioritize the data based on a source IP address, source port, destination IP address, destination port, source MAC address, tcp acknowledgment or any combination thereof.

5 . The method of claim 3 , wherein generating further comprises generating user interface elements to prioritize data being transmitted through the transparent network appliance based on a plurality of parameters.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein generating further comprises generating user interface elements to allocate a bandwidth of the prioritized data.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving comprises receiving statistical information relating to the traffic, the statistical information comprising a bandwidth, an average bandwidth, an IP protocol, an IP address, information related to traffic sent at a host level, information related to traffic received at a host level, information related to traffic sent at a port level, information related to traffic received at a port level, information related to traffic sent at a stream level, information related to traffic received at a stream level, or any combination thereof.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

generating, by the management station, a user interface;

formatting, by the management station, the statistical information from the transparent network appliance; and

displaying, by the management station, the statistical information on the user interface.

9 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising generating, by the management station, user interface elements to download a file relating to the statistical information.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein sending further comprises sending, by the management station, an event message to the transparent network appliance, the event message comprising a command to activate a module that shapes the traffic, a command to deactivate the module that shapes the traffic, a command to update a configuration used to shape the traffic, a command to establish a connection with a module that generates the statistical information relating to the traffic, a command to end the connection with the module that generates the statistical information relating to the traffic, a command to update software relating to the transparent network appliance, or any combination thereof.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein sending further comprises sending, by the management station, a command for the transparent network appliance to shape traffic based on a configurable rule.

12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising employing a user interface associated with the management station to generate and/or prioritize the configurable rule used to shape the traffic.

13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the configurable rule is one of a plurality of rules used to shape the traffic.

14 . A transparent network appliance for propagation protection within a network, the network appliance comprising:

a network interface card configured to act as a bridge between a first portion of the network and a second portion of the network;

a first data analyzer module configured to analyze traffic being transmitted through the transparent network appliance and to transmit statistical information relating to the traffic to a management station; and

a second data analyzer module configured to analyze an event message from the management station, the event message comprising a command to shape the traffic being transmitted through the transparent network appliance.

15 . A computer program product, tangibly embodied in an information carrier, for monitoring propagation protection within a network, the computer program product including instructions being operable to cause a data processing apparatus to:

send, by a management station, an event message to a transparent network appliance, the event message comprising a command for the transparent network appliance to shape traffic being transmitted through the transparent network appliance; and

receive, by the management station, statistical information from the transparent network appliance relating to the traffic being transmitted through the transparent network device.

16 . A computerized method for propagation protection within a network, the method comprising:

repeatedly storing, by a network appliance, packets of a data stream in a buffer;

reassembling the packets of data to generate a portion of the data stream; and

preventing the packets of data from being transmitted from the network appliance until a threat determination is made.

17 . The method of claim 16 wherein the data stream is associated with a TCP session.

18 . The method of claim 16 wherein the portion of the data stream is not the entire data stream.

19 . The method of claim 16 , wherein storing further comprises storing packets of data until a next sequential packet is not available.

20 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising analyzing a header associated with the packets of data to determine if the reassembled portion of data is sufficient to make a threat determination.

21 . The method of claim 16 , wherein reassembling further comprises determining a sequence number of a packet.

22 . The method of claim 21 , further comprising determining if the sequence number of the packet is received with a sequence number less than a next expected sequence number and the sequence number plus a data length of the packet is greater than the next expected sequence number.

23 . The method of claim 22 , further comprising analyzing a trailing data of the packet equal to the difference between the sequence number plus a data length of the packet and the next expected sequence number.

24 . The method of claim 23 , further comprising incrementing the next expected sequence number by the packet data length.

25 . A transparent network appliance for propagation protection within a network, the network appliance comprising:

a network interface card configured to act as a bridge between a first portion of the network and a second portion of the network; and

a data analyzer module configured to repeatedly store packets of a data stream in a buffer, reassemble packets of data to reassemble a portion of the data stream, and prevent packets of data from being transmitted from the network appliance until a threat determination is made.

26 . A computer program product, tangibly embodied in an information carrier, for monitoring propagation protection within a network, the computer program product including instructions being operable to cause a data processing apparatus to:

repeatedly store, by a network appliance, packets of a data stream in a buffer;

reassemble the packets of data to generate a portion of the data stream; and

prevent the packets of data from being transmitted from the network appliance until a threat determination is made.