Patent ID: 7904541

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for handling denial of service (DOS) attacks, comprising: storing, at a domain name service (DNS) server of a particular point of presence (POP) of a plurality of POPs, neighbor data that identifies one or more other POPs of said plurality of POPs as being neighboring POPs of the particular POP; wherein the particular POP comprises a plurality of Web servers; determining whether a configurable capacity threshold has been exceeded for each Web server of the plurality of Web servers; while the configurable capacity threshold is exceeded for each Web server of the plurality of Web servers in the particular POP: a first DNS server in the particular POP receiving a first DNS request; redirecting, based on the neighbor data, the first DNS request to a first DNS server in a first neighboring POP; and wherein the first DNS server in the first neighboring POP resolves the first DNS request by returning an IP address of a Web server in the first neighboring POP; while a DOS attack that negatively affects the particular POP is detected: a second DNS server in the particular POP receiving a second DNS request; determining to not redirect the second DNS request to any DNS server in any neighboring POP of the particular POP.