Patent ID: 7571460

Claim:
A subscriber access control system comprising: a datastore comprising quarantine requests and a current subscriber state; a rules engine; a Web server; a DNS server; a DNS proxy server; and an enforcement server, wherein, the rules engine comprises a first memory, wherein the first memory comprises instructions for: acquiring a quarantine request directed to a subscriber; determining the current subscriber state, wherein the subscriber state comprises a quarantined state and an unquarantined state; determining a desired subscriber state as indicated by the quarantine request; and when the current subscriber state is unquarantined and the desired subscriber state is quarantined, then creating a quarantine attribute associated with a desired behavior of a network device of the subscriber; and when the current subscriber state is quarantined and the desired subscriber state is unquarantined, then disassociating the quarantine attribute from the network device; and wherein the DNS proxy server comprises a second memory and wherein the second memory comprises instructions for: receiving a DNS request from the network device for the IP address of a Web site; determining the current subscriber state; and when the current subscriber state is quarantined, then forwarding the DNS request to the DNS server, wherein the DNS server comprises a third memory and wherein the third memory comprises instructions for responding to the DNS request with the IP address of the Web server; when the current subscriber state is unquarantined, then redirecting the DNS request to an external DNS server; and wherein the Web server comprises a fourth memory and wherein the fourth memory comprises instructions for: receiving a GET request from the network device, wherein the destination address of the GET request is the IP address of the Web server; and redirecting the GET request to a URL of the enforcement server.