Patent ID: 8176157

Claim:
A method for grouping exceptions, said method comprising: reading, at a computer, a list of firewall exceptions related to different application program features of a particular application program on said computer, the list of firewall exceptions defined by said particular application program for a firewall configured to filter network traffic to said computer, wherein: said list of firewall exceptions defined by said particular application program includes a plurality of individual firewall exceptions associated with a particular application program feature of said particular application program, and each individual firewall exception of said plurality of exceptions associated with said particular application program feature needs to be enabled to allow said firewall to pass certain types of information to said computer for said particular application program feature to operate; retrieving a plurality of firewall exception groups for said particular application program, wherein each firewall exception group corresponds to a different application program feature of said particular application program; automatically organizing individual firewall exceptions of said list of firewall exceptions into said plurality of firewall exception groups, wherein all individual firewall exceptions of said plurality of firewall exceptions associated with said particular application program feature of said particular application program are automatically organized into a firewall exception group corresponding to said particular application program feature; and displaying said plurality of firewall exception groups to an end-user on a display of the computer for selection and enablement of one or more of said plurality of firewall exception groups, wherein: individual firewall exceptions to be enabled based on the selection and enablement of said one or more firewall exception groups are not displayed to said end-user for selection, and selection of said firewall exception group corresponding to said particular application program feature simultaneously enables: each individual firewall exception included in said firewall exception group corresponding to said particular application program feature, and all firewall exception dependencies associated with said firewall exception group corresponding to said particular application program feature that are included in different firewall exception groups corresponding to different application program features of said particular application program.