Patent ID: 7299297

Claim:
A method of limiting the effect upon certain users that access an e-merchant's server from a denial-of-service attack against the e-merchant's server, the method comprising: marking a packet addressed to the e-merchant's server for forwarding in a privileged class of service when the source of the packet is a computer whose user is a VIP user who has been designated by the e-merchant as being within a predetermined subset of users who transact business online with the e-merchant through the e-merchant's server, where a determination that the computer's user is a VIP user is made through the VIP user's activation of a VIP right that was granted to the VIP user by the e-merchant and the attachment of that VIP right to the VIP user's computer, the VIP right granted by the e-merchant to the VIP user automatically expiring at the end of a specified term and/or after a specified maximum number of packets or bytes have been forwarded to the e-merchant's server by the VIP user's computer client-in the privileged class of service.