KR100734965B1 - System and method to redirect user attempts to access network sites - Google Patents

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for redirecting a user who wants to access a network destination to multiple destinations selected by that network administrator, the user, or another network administrator. A method of redirecting a user's access request to a destination address includes intercepting at the gateway device a user's access request to that destination address, and redirecting the user's computer to a webpage at an address different from the destination address. Include. Redirection can occur when certain conditions are met, such as over time or a request for user access to a particular destination site. A system for performing such redirection can communicate with the gateway device, which receives a request for access from a user to a destination address through a user computer, and can present information tailored to the user and the destination And a portal page redirection device that redirects the user's computer to a portal page at an address different from the address.

Gateway device, router, portal page, network administrator, user access request

Description

System and method to redirect user attempts to access a network site {SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR REDIRECTING USERS ATTEMPTING TO ACCESS A NETWORK SITE}

The present invention relates generally to network redirection, and more particularly to a system and method for redirecting a user from one desired network destination to one or more other network destinations.

Cross Citation of Related Application

This application is filed on December 8, 1999, and is filed with a U.S. Patent Application entitled "System and Method for Orienting a User With Computer Access Transparent to a Network Using a Gateway Device with Directional Ability." Partial Serial Application of No. 09 / 458,569. This application is also filed on December 8, 1999 and entitled US Systems Application No. 09/09 entitled " Systems and Methods of Using Gateway Devices to Approve, Authenticate, and Account Users with Transparent Computer Access to the Network. &Quot; 458,602, filed Oct. 22, 1999 and entitled "System and Method for Dynamic Bandwidth Management on a Per-Subscriber Base in Computer Networks" US Provisional Patent Application No. 60 / 161,182, Oct. 1999 The invention is filed on the date of the present invention, filed on October 22, 1999, filed with US Patent Application No. 60 / 160,890, entitled "System and Method for Generating a Subscriber Tunnel by a Gateway Device in a Computer Network"; US Provisional Patent Application No. 60 / 161,139, filed and filed October 22, 1999, "Information and Control Console for Use in Network Gateway Interfaces." Patent Application No. 60 / 161,189, filed Oct. 22, 1999, entitled "System and Method for Transparent Computer Access and Communication with a Service Provider Network Using a Network Gateway Apparatus," and entitled " US Patent Application No. 60 / 160,973, filed October 22, 1999, entitled "System and Method for Network Gateway Device to Communicate with Management System for Convenient Subscriber Management," and entitled "XML Interface." US Provisional Patent Application No. 60 / 161,181, filed on October 22, 1999, and US Pat. Appl., Entitled "Identification and Approval Based on Location for Use in Gateway Devices," Priority is claimed from heading 60 / 161,093. The above applications are all part of this specification by citing the entire contents herein.

Internet service providers (ISPs) or enterprise network (e.g., LAN) providers provide a variety of user access to their networks and other online services through various gateway devices or routers. To take advantage of user access to their computer networks and online services, an enterprise network or ISP must be able to redirect users to network destinations, such as web pages or custom portal pages that they want to access or view. For example, if a user is located at an airport, the service provider at that airport may ask the user for portal page airport information (e.g., flight arrival and departure information), even if the user requires another page, such as a homepage at his own company. ), A portal page with the user's itinerary, or a web page about the airport or city in which the airport is located, may want to provide the user with incentives to access the network. For example, an ISP may want the user to access the ISP's webpage for the latest news, the latest weather, information about the user's Internet service, and a payment method advertisement.

This web page redirection has been done before. For example, an American Online (AOL) user may select a variety of AOL services when accessing the Internet and may be designated as an AOL homepage containing advertisements from various companies. Typically, designating a user as such a page would be beneficial for an ISP because the subscriber is an advertising viewer and the advertiser has to pay the ISP each time the user accesses the Internet. Advertisers are paying for such advertisements because they can customize the ads based not only on those viewers but also on the average viewer who accesses the Internet. Moreover, AOL sells its services through its homepage, which can be attractive to potential subscribers. Designating a user as a specific web page or portal page may provide additional functionality. A user may be designated as a portal page, such as a login page, to register with login information to show that access to that network is genuine and authorized. Moreover, a user may want to set up a page specialized for himself, such as a page containing a link he likes, a page linking the user to the user's business, or a page containing other items related to the user.

However, such designation of a user as a web page has traditionally been based on the configuration of software and / or user computers installed on the user's computer in communication with the primary network. For example, if the user computer is properly configured for access to the primary network, the user computer may be configured to access a particular web page (or home page) on that network. This may correspond, for example, to a business in which a user's computer is specific to an intranet homepage or company and configured to access Internet pages located on the Internet.

Thus, a method and system for enabling a user to easily access a computer network using a gateway device, the computer network providing access to the user, and a network destination (e.g., a webpage) set by a user, a network administrator or another entity. Or a portal page). Moreover, such redirection may redirect a user to a login page if the system determines that the user does not have access to an online service or network so that the user can set access rights to the network.

The present invention includes a method and system for redirecting a user to a network destination, such as a web page, comprising a method and system for the user to readily access a computer network that communicates with the network destination through a gateway or similar hardware device. The method and system are preferably easy to understand for the user since the user does not need to reconfigure his computer and does not need to install additional software on the computer for reconfiguration.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a method is disclosed for redirecting a user's access request to a destination address via a computer in communication with a network. The method includes receiving at the gateway device a request for access from a user to a destination address via a user computer, determining whether the user has access to the network, and receiving additional login information from the user attempting to access the network. Collecting. The method further includes redirecting the user's computer to a portal page at an address different from the destination address, following gathering additional login information from the user and determining that the user has access to the secondary network.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, redirecting the user computer to a portal page includes redirecting the user computer to a user customized page. According to another aspect of the present invention, redirecting the user computer to a portal page includes redirecting the user computer to a customized portal page based on the location of the user computer. Additionally, redirecting the user's computer to the portal page may include redirecting the user's computer to the portal page after a period of time or upon occurrence of a constant state, such as a user's attempt to access a particular destination. . In addition, the step of redirecting the user computer to the portal page may include redirecting the user computer to a portal page created by an administrator associated with the portal page.

In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a method is disclosed for redirecting a user's access request to a destination address via a computer in communication with a network. The method comprises receiving at the gateway device an access request from a user to a destination address via a user computer, determining whether the user has access to the network, and determining that the user has access to the network. Subsequently, redirecting the user computer to a web page at an address different from the destination address.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, redirecting a user to a webpage includes redirecting the user to a portal page created by an administrator associated with the portal page. According to another aspect of the present invention, redirecting the user computer to a web page includes redirecting the user computer to a portal page customized by the user. The step of redirecting the user computer to the web page may further include redirecting the user computer to the portal page after a certain period of time has elapsed.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, a system is disclosed for redirecting a user's access request to a destination address via a computer in communication with a network. The system includes a gateway device for receiving an access request from a user to a destination address through a user computer, and communicating with the gateway device, following collection of login information required from a user accessing a network, at a different address than the destination address. It includes a portal page redirection device that redirects a user's computer to a portal page.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a portal page redirection device is located in a gateway device. According to another aspect of the present invention, a portal page redirection apparatus redirects a user computer to a customized portal page. The portal page redirection device may redirect the user's computer to the portal page after a period of time or when another state or action occurs, such as a request from a particular destination site. According to another aspect of the present invention, a portal page redirection apparatus may redirect a user computer to a portal page created by an administrator associated with the portal page.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, a system is disclosed for redirecting a user access request to a destination address through a computer in communication with a secondary network. The system communicates with a gateway device that receives a request for access from a user to a destination address through a user computer, and a portal page redirection that redirects the user computer to a portal page that presents customized information to the user. And the redirection comprises following the determination that the user is authorized to access the network, redirecting the user's computer to a portal page at an address different from the destination address.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a portal page redirection device is located in a gateway device. According to another aspect of the present invention, a portal page redirection apparatus redirects a user computer to a customized portal page. Further, according to another aspect of the present invention, the portal page redirection apparatus redirects the user computer to the portal page after a certain period of time or upon occurrence of another state that may be defined by the network administrator.

1 is a block diagram of a computer system including a gateway device for automatically redirecting a computer browser from a requested network destination to another network destination, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a block diagram showing steps taken by a browser and a server in a conventional web page request.

3 is a block diagram illustrating redirection functionality of a method and system of the present invention, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the invention may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein, which are provided for the purpose of fully understanding the nature of the invention by those skilled in the art. will be.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a computer system 10 implementing a redirection method according to an embodiment of the present invention provides an interface between the computer 14 and various networks 20 or online services 22. A plurality of computers 14 capable of communicating with one or more online services 22 or a network through a gateway device 12. Examples of such gateway devices are disclosed in US Patent Application 08 / 816,174 and US Provisional Application 60 / 111,497, both of which are referred to as Gateway Device Applications, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. In short, the gateway device 12 provides easy computer access to the online service 22 or the network 22 so that the computer 14 can access any network through the device 12 regardless of its network configuration. To facilitate.

In addition, the gateway device 12 may include the computer attempting to access the network 20, the location of the computer attempting to access the network 20, and the identity of the user attempting network access, as described in the gateway device application. , And the ability to recognize additional attributes.

As shown in FIG. 1, computer system 10 is also located between computer 14 and gateway device 12 to multiplex multiplex signals received from multiple computers into one link to gateway device 12. An access concentrator 16. Depending on the medium connecting the computer 14 to the access concentrator, the access concentrator 16 can be configured in various forms. For example, the access concentrator can use a digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM) for signals transmitted over conventional telephone lines, cable head ends (cable modem termination self (CMTS)) for signals transmitted over coaxial cables, and wireless networks. It may be a wireless access point (WAP), Ethernet switching network, etc. for the transmitted signal.

Computer system 10 further includes one or more routers 18 and / or servers (not shown in FIG. 1) that control or direct traffic with multiple computer networks 20 or other online services 22. do. Although computer system 10 is shown as having one router, computer system 10 may include a plurality of routers arranged hierarchically in order to properly route traffic to and from various networks 20 or online services 22; It may have a switching network, a bridge and the like. In this regard, the gateway device 12 typically establishes a link with one or more routers. The router then establishes a link with the network 20 or server of the online service at the user's option. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that one or more of the devices shown in FIG. 1 may be combined. For example, although not shown, the router 18 may be entirely located in the gateway device 12. Moreover, computer system 10 may include additional elements such as devices disclosed in gateway device applications or network components known to those skilled in the art.

As described in the gateway device application, the gateway device 12 is adapted to the configuration of each of the computers 14 that log on to the computer system 10 so that the user and the computer network 20 or the online service 22 are easy to understand. Specially designed. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, computer system 10 uses Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) services, which are well known to those skilled in the art and are currently implemented in many computer networks. In a DHCP network, when a computer logs on to the computer network through communication with the gateway device 12, an IP address is assigned to each of the plurality of computers 14. DHCP service may be provided by an external DHCP server 24 or by a distributed DHCP server inside a gateway device.

In order to enable the computer user to communicate with the computer network 20 or the online service 22 intelligibly, the gateway device must be able to communicate with the user computer as well as the various online services 22 or the network 20. In order to support such communication, the gateway device 12 generally performs a packet translation function that is easy to understand for both the user and the network. In this regard, for outgoing traffic from a computer to a network or online service, the gateway device 12 may determine attributes in packets coming from the user, such as source addresses, checksums, and user specified variables, to meet the criteria of the network accessed by the user. Change something like The outgoing packet also includes an attribute that specifies that all incoming packets from the accessed network will be routed through the gateway device. In contrast, incoming traffic from a computer network or other online service routed through the gateway device is translated at the gateway device so that the packet is properly formatted for the user host computer. In this way, the packet translation process that occurs at the gateway device 12 is easy for the host to appear as if it is sending or receiving data directly with the accessed computer network. It will be appreciated that data intercept capabilities and interface capabilities with user computers and networks are essential to the redirection method of the present invention. This redesignation method will be described later.

In a conventional network access system, a user typically communicates with the network through a browser used by the user to request a specific network destination. For example, when a user accesses the Internet through an ISP, the user enters a specific URL or web address into a browser, which then accesses a particular web page for the user. This is done in four steps as shown in FIG. First, after the user requests a particular web page (block 30), the browser sends a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) request to the origin server, which is the location of the requested web page (eg, www.yahoo.com). TCP requests are well known to those skilled in the art and may later be referred to as web page requests. The browser then receives an acknowledgment from the origin server that the webpage request has been received (block 32). Third, after the browser receives the acknowledgment, it sends an HTTP request to receive the web page. Finally, upon receiving the HTTP request, the webpage sends the webpage material to the browser (block 32), and the browser receives the webpage (block 38).

The system and method of the present invention blocks this conventional process and redirects the user to a destination other than the user's request. This is accomplished by a gateway device as described above, or similar hardware installed between the user computer and the network destination to enable network access. This hardware includes one or more processors and network interface devices that intercept data transmitted from the computer to the network, process and manipulate the data, deliver the data to the desired network location, and vice versa. do. Thus, although the redirection capabilities of the systems and methods of the present invention will be described here using a gateway device, it will be appreciated that any hardware that plays an intermediate role between a computer and a network can implement the present invention.

Redirection of the user may be performed by an entity that maintains such hardware, such as an ISP, or an entity that maintains a local network. For example, according to one aspect of the present invention, the redirection method of the present invention first designates a user as a login page and logs in to the user so that an ISP or other entity holding the gateway device 12 can verify the identity of the user. You may be asked to enter a name and password. This may occur when a device such as a gateway device or similar authentication device, such as an AAA server described in the gateway device application, cannot verify and / or determine the access right of source request access. Alternatively, the user may be redirected to a specific network destination (eg, an Internet web page) or a portal page set up by an entity redirecting to the user.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, user redirection is a homepage redirection performed by the gateway device 12 or by the redirection device 28 communicating with the gateway device either inside or outside the gateway device 12. (HPR) method. Although this redirection device 28 may be used to implement the redirection function, only the gateway device will be mentioned here for simplicity.

To perform redirection of the user to the portal page, the gateway device 12 intercepts the original webpage request sent by the user's browser to the origin server (user request destination) (blocks 40 and 42), and the source. Record the identity of the server. After intercepting the request, the gateway device 12 changes the request so that the request is sent to a redirect server, which is a temporary server located inside or outside the gateway device 12 (block 42). The redirect server sends a response to the user browser via the gateway device (block 46) after receiving the redirected webpage request (block 46). The gateway device 12 intercepts the response from the redirect server and the redirect, and changes the response so that the response appears as if it came from the source server. In particular, gateway device 12 may change the IP header in its response indicating that gateway device 12 is a web page requested by the user (block 46). This response from the redirect server indicates that the redirect server is the requested web page. The response further includes a command to redirect the browser to the portal page and an auto refresh message. After the user's browser receives the redirect message (block 48), the browser will trigger a get request for the portal page received by the portal page (block 52) (block 48). The portal page then sends the portal page to the user browser (block 54).

As a result of this stack address translation and redirection, which can be fully implemented within the gateway device, when the browser receives a response to the browser's web page request, the browser does not know that the requested web page was not retrieved at all. The role of the gateway device is therefore transparent to the browser.

According to one aspect of the present invention, the protocol stack of the redirect server acts as a user input destination long enough to complete the connection or 'handshake', after which the protocol stack directs the user to the portal server. The portal server can be located near the gateway device to facilitate communication speed. This redirection to the portal server can be performed by redirecting only the web page, not all traffic, including E-mail, FTP, or other traffic. Therefore, once authorized, if the user does not attempt to access the webpage through the user's Internet browser, the gateway device can transparently send the communication to the destination requested by the user without requiring the user to portal page speed. .

According to one aspect of the present invention, when a user enters a requested network destination, the user may specify a specific portal page according to the user identity, computer, location or one or more additional attributes as described in detail in the gateway device application. Can be redirected to For example, if a user is not recognized according to the AAA scheme, the user may be redirected to a portal page, such as a login page, which is configured to authorize a new user or allow the user to purchase network access through the method described above. The login page allows new users to join the computer network and transparently access the network or online services through the gateway device. Thus, new users can access network or online services without being previously defined in any kind of user database, such as a RADIUS database.

The redirection device 28 may then either direct the user to a destination requested by the user, or designate the user as another page, depending on the design of the system. This redirection can be permanent to prevent a user from designating a particular destination and accessing another destination, or it can be temporary to allow the user to be forced to a particular destination and then allow the user to access any destination. In addition, after being redirected to a portal page, the user may be required to take some kind of action, such as providing information in response to a request, before being routed to the desired destination.

By redirecting the user to the portal page through the redirection device, the gateway administrator or network operator has the opportunity to provide the user with update information including the network or the user location. This is particularly useful where redirection is implemented through a network device on a local network, such as a company, hotel or airport network. For example, a portal page may provide a link to a company homepage, a travel site on the Internet, an Internet search engine, and a network provider homepage. Additionally, buttons or other fields in portal pages may include other kinds of information options, such as advertising fields or custom links or fields, based on data in the user profile or data entered by the user.

It will be appreciated that portal pages are not limited to providing information related to user billing and service plans. The portal page may also be configured to include information tailored to the user / location / site far from the user, the gateway device having the ability to identify such information. For example, a user may be located in a hotel for the purpose of attending a particular convention or conference in the hotel or in the immediate vicinity of the hotel. The gateway device 12 may have “learned” information about the user through an initial login profile query, or the gateway administrator may have entered this information into the database, so the gateway device recognizes the user and accordingly portal pages. In a hotel scenario, the portal page may include a link to a convention or conference service provided by the hotel The gateway device may store source profile information in a custom database, such as a RADIUS database, or an external database. You can store and retrieve data from.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the redirection functionality of the systems and methods of the present invention may be used to redirect a user to a destination each time the user enters a destination request. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to redirecting a user to a particular destination or portal page upon the secondary network or upon the initial attempt of the user to access the destination through the secondary network. Therefore, when the user accesses the Internet through the gateway device, the present invention can monitor each packet transmitted from the user computer and perform the redirection function when desired. For example, a user can surf the Internet without any restrictions until he or she attempts to access a website of a particular car manufacturer. The system and method of the present invention can then automatically redirect the user to another manufacturer's website using the redirection capability of the present invention. The user may receive an advertisement from a particular manufacturer before being sent to the required destination. In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, the user's browser or computer may be redirected to receive pop-up advertisements or frames either during sending the user to the required destination, periodically, or after the user has already accessed the requested destination.

In another example of locating portal page data, a user may be remotely accessing a gateway device while located at a particular airport terminal. The gateway device will be configured to provide quick access to information about that particular airport terminal, i.e. information about current planes destined for and arriving at the terminal, goods services provided by the terminal, and the like. In this way, the portal page may include a link to terminal specific flight information and / or terminal specific goods service that is useful to the user.

HPR will also appreciate that portal page redirection device 28 may be configured to redirect a user to a portal page upon a specific default occurrence, such as a time slot, or according to a preset time. For example, a portal page can act as a screensaver, in which case the user is redirected to the portal page after a period of inactivity. These functions can be set up by your ISP or corporate network administrator.

Customization of information, including portal pages, is not limited to gateway administrators or network operators. The user can also process the information provided on the portal page. Such user processing can be performed either directly by the user who manually configures the portal page or indirectly from the gateway device that constructs the portal page in response to the data in the custom profile. In the manual example, the user may be asked to select the information or type of information that the user wishes to supply to the portal page for a particular network period. For example, a user may request the setting of an alarm clock counter to meet an appointment time or may require periodic updates of a particular stock price index. The information that the user processes for the portal page may be specific to the network period, associated with the gateway subscription period, or stored in the source profile for an indefinite period. The ability of the gateway device to communicate with a large number of user databases provides the basis for storing custom profiles for extended periods of time.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that various modifications may be made to the description and other embodiments of the invention without departing from the broad scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is not intended to be limited to the specific embodiments or configurations described, but to cover any modifications, adaptations, and variations that fall within the scope and principles of the invention as defined in the appended claims. Certain terms are used in this specification but they are used in a generic and technical sense and not for the purpose of limitation.

Claims (29)

delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete A method of redirection of an access request, which redirects an access request to the original destination address to a redirected destination address. At the gateway device, receiving all access requests to the original destination address from the computer; Determining, at the gateway device, an access request that requires redirection during an access request to the original destination address; If redirection is needed, storing the original destination address; If redirection is necessary, at the gateway device, changing an access request to the original destination address and forwarding the changed access request to a redirection server; At the redirection server, responding to the changed access request with a browser redirection message that reassigns the changed access request to a redirection destination address designated by an administrator; And Intercepting the browser redirection message at the gateway device, modifying the browser redirection message with the stored original destination address, and sending the modified browser redirection message to the computer, wherein the modified browser redirection is A message automatically redirects the computer to the redirected destination address Containing How to redirect access requests. The method of claim 19, And after the computer is automatically redirected to the redirected destination address, directing the computer to the stored original destination address. The method of claim 20, After a predetermined time has passed, assigning the computer to the stored original destination address is performed. The method of claim 20, After a predetermined computer input event occurs, designating the computer as the stored original destination address is performed. The method of claim 19, Responding to the changed access request at the redirect server further comprises: at the redirect server, responding to the changed access request with a browser redirection message that reassigns the changed access request to a redirected destination address associated with a login page. And redirecting the access request. An access request redirection system, which redirects an access request to an original destination address to a redirected destination address. A computer that initiates access requests to the original destination address; Communicate with the computer, receive access requests to the original destination address from the computer, determine if any of the access requests to the original destination address require redirection, and the redirection is necessary A gateway device for storing the original destination address and changing an access request to the original destination address; And A redirect server, which communicates with the gateway device and, upon receiving the changed access request from the gateway device, responds with a browser redirection message that reassigns the changed access request to a redirect destination address specified by an administrator. Including, The gateway device intercepts the browser redirection message, changes the browser redirection message with the stored original destination address, before sending the browser redirection message to the computer, The computer receives the modified browser redirection message and is automatically redirected to the redirection destination address, Redirection System for Access Requests The method of claim 24, And a user profile database in communication with the gateway device and storing user-access information. The method of claim 24, An AAA server (Authentication, Authorization) that communicates with the gateway device and the user profile database and determines whether a user of the computer is authorized to access the original destination address based on user-access information stored in the user profile database. and an accounting server redirection system. The method of claim 24, And the redirection server is located in the gateway device. The method of claim 25, And the user profile database is located within the gateway device. The method of claim 26, And the AAA server is located in the gateway device.

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