Patent ID: 7769869

Claim:
A method for establishing via an appliance a transport layer protocol connection initiated by a server on a first network to a client connected from a second network to the first network via a secure socket layer virtual private network (SSL VPN) connection, the method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving, by an appliance, a transport layer connection request from a server on a first network to connect to a client connected to the first network via a SSL VPN connection from a second network, the transport layer connection request identifying a client destination internet protocol address and a client destination port on the first network; (b) establishing, by the appliance, a first transport layer connection to the server on the first network; (c) determining, by the appliance, the client on the second network associated with the client destination internet protocol address on the first network; (d) transmitting, by the appliance, connection information identifying the client destination port to an agent on the client; (e) establishing, by the agent, a second transport layer connection to the client destination port using a local internet protocol address of the client on the second network; (f) establishing, by the agent, a third transport layer connection to the appliance and associating the third transport layer connection with the second transport layer connection; (g) linking, by the appliance, the first transport layer connection to the server with the third transport layer connection to the agent of the client; and (h) associating, by the appliance, a first connection record for the first transport layer connection to the server with a second connection record for the third transport layer connection.