Patent ID: 7818794
Filing Date: 2010-10-19
Classification: G06F,H04L

Abstract:
1. An apparatus adapted to communicate via a network, comprising: a firewall including a set of rules for identifying packets associated with inappropriate activity, the rules in the set being separated into a plurality of classes; and an indicator device for providing a plurality of user discernable indicators, wherein each of the plurality of user discernable indicators is associated with a different one of the plurality of classes and is visually discernable, and wherein a respective one of said plurality of user discernable indicators is triggered if one or more of the rules corresponding to one of said plurality of classes associated with the respective one of said plurality of user discernable indicators is violated, wherein the rules in the set are prioritized such that each of the plurality of classes represents a respective different one of a plurality of priority levels, wherein each of the plurality of user discernable indicators except a particular one is associated with the respective different one of the plurality of classes, the particular one of the plurality of user discernable indicators being associated with an affirmative status that filtering is being contemporaneously performed for any of the packets that violate the one or more rules, and wherein the particular one of the plurality of user discernable indicators along with the respective one of the plurality of user discernable indicators are concurrently triggered, only when a number of the packets that violate the one or more rules exceeds a pre-specified threshold to indicate that the filtering any of the packets that violate the one or more rules is being contemporaneously performed.