Patent ID: 8832264
Filing Date: 2014-09-09
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A network appliance for monitoring content requested by at least one networked device operably coupled to a local area network and the Internet, the network appliance comprising: a local database stored on the network appliance; at least one interface for receiving and processing packetized data, the packetized data including packetized data that encapsulates TCP/IP packet data generated by the at least one network device and communicated over the local area network; processing means that processes the TCP/IP packet data to identify whether it specifies a URL representing at least one particular file type of multimedia content, and if so, adds the specified URL and an associated date and time to the local database; routing logic that forwards the TCP/IP packet data as part of packetized data for downstream data communication to the Internet irrespective of the processing of the TCP/IP packet data that identifies whether the TCP/IP packet data specifies a URL representing at least one particular file type of multimedia content; and web server logic that is configured to provide controlled access to information stored in the local database; wherein the processing means includes a first processing means and a second processing means, wherein the first processing means processes the TCP/IP packet data to identify whether it matches at least one predetermined profile and, if so, adds a particular object corresponding to the TCP/IP packet data to a queue of objects, and wherein the second processing means processes the queue of objects to automatically determine whether the URL represented by a given object represents at least one particular file type of multimedia content, and if so, adds data associated with the given object to the local database; and wherein the local database stores thumbnail images for multimedia content corresponding to URLs specified by TCP/IP data communicated over the local area network, and the web server logic is configured to provide access to such thumbnail images stored in the local database in order to allow at least one authorized user to review the multimedia content corresponding to URLs specified by TCP/IP data communicated over the local area network.