System for providing firewall capabilities to a communication device

US7624434B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• 3Com Corporation · US

Inventors

• Peter Rigstad · Holladay, US
• John Yoon · Falls Church, US
• Mark Farahar · Étampes, FR
• Barani Subbiah · Sunnyvale, US
• Brant D. Thomsen · Sandy, US
• David Richmond · West Valley City, US
• Vered Maor Semel · Palo Alto, US
• Earl Bryner · Roy, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Mar 1, 2002
• Grant date: Nov 24, 2009
• Expiry date: Sep 4, 2023

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04L63/20
• WIPO field: Digital communication
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A system for providing security in a computing network. The system has a server for distributing policies to be implemented by firewall devices in the network. The firewall devices provide hardware implemented firewalls to communication devices making network connections. The system has logic to allow a connection to be made to the network via a communication device at a node provided the firewall device is at that node. Therefore, the firewall device must be in the system for a connection to be established via the communication device. Additionally, the system is configured to cause data transferred by the communication device to be processed by the firewall.