Patent ID: 7685633
Filing Date: 2010-03-23
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. At a gateway server in a computerized environment in which a client computer system accesses a resource at the gateway server through a firewall, the gateway server providing application layer connections through a firewall, a method comprising the acts of: receiving a connection request from a client, wherein the connection request identifies a resource with which the client would like to connect; identifying, based on the resource identified in the connection request, one or more access policies from a communication framework installed at the gateway, wherein the one or more access polices are generic to the communication framework and are not designed specifically for the resource; quarantining a connection with the client to determine if the client has installed a minimum set of one or more features that are defined in the one or more policies; identifying a protocol processor plug-in based on a resource type of the identified resource, wherein the identified protocol processor plug-in handles connections to multiple resources that are of the same resource type; and forwarding the connection with the client to the identified protocol processor plug-in by providing control of a channel of a connection tunnel to the protocol processor plug-in at the server such that subsequent communications between the client and the resource through the channel are handled by the protocol processor plug-in independently of the communication framework.