Patent ID: 7921282

Claim:
A method for managing a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) handshake between a client and a server, comprising: configuring a processor to perform the steps of: determining a SYN-ACK cookie based in part on a cryptographic operation using a secret key and a network characteristic, wherein the SYN-ACK cookie is associated with a SYN-ACK message sent from a server; including the SYN-ACK cookie in a field of a SYN message; sending the SYN message to the server including the SYN-ACK cookie to initiate a TCP/IP connection; receiving the SYN-ACK message in response to sending the SYN message from the client; and establishing the TCP/IP connection between the client and the server, if the SYN-ACK message includes the valid SYN-ACK cookie based on the cryptographic operation using the secret key.