Patent ID: 8838570

Claim:
A method of checking computers for bots using a web browser, the method to be performed by a first server computer and comprising: receiving in the first server computer a web browser connection from a web browser running in a user client computer, the web browser connection resulting from invocation by a user of the user client computer of a home page button of the web browser; receiving in the first server computer a uniform resource locator (URL) address of a web page as a URL parameter from the web browser, the web page being hosted in a second server computer separate from the first server computer, the URL address of the web page being included in a home page address field of an Internet option configuration menu of the web browser, the web browser being configured to contact the first server computer to check if the client computer is infected by a bot prior to contacting the second server computer hosting the web page; receiving an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the client computer; determining whether the client computer is infected by a bot by comparing the IP address of the client computer to IP addresses of bot-infected computers; and using the URL address of the web page that has been received as a URL parameter from the web browser, redirecting the web browser to the web page when the client computer is not infected by a bot.