Patent ID: 8200957

Claim:
A system for managing network traffic, comprising: a first component that receives network traffic over a network and performs actions comprising: determining a SYN-ACK cookie based in part on a cryptographic operation using a secret key and at least one state information; including the SYN-ACK cookie in a SYN message to a server device; sending the SYN message to the server device to initiate a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) connection with the server device; and a second component that receives network traffic over the network, is in communication with the first component to receive the secret key, and when the first component is detected in fail-over mode as having an error, then the second component performing actions, comprising: receiving a SYN-ACK message that comprises a modified SYN-ACK cookie; determining whether the modified SYN-ACK cookie is valid based on another cryptographic operation using the secret key and the modified SYN-ACK cookie; and selectively establishing the TCP/IP connection to forward network traffic to the server device in response to the valid modified SYN-ACK cookie.