Patent ID: 8302179

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving ingress packets at a telecommunications endpoint during execution by the endpoint of a firewall engine and an application, wherein the application is configured to make socket library calls to an operating system layer; when a state change in the operational state of the application occurs during the execution of the application, notifying the firewall engine of the state change, wherein the application performs the notifying; filtering, by the firewall engine at the endpoint, at least one of the ingress packets received, based on a first set of packet-classification rules that comprises a first rule, wherein the selection of the first set of packet-classification rules is based on the state change; when the application, during its execution, exclusively anticipates that the ingress packets are to exhibit a predetermined characteristic, making a second rule available to the firewall engine as part of the first set of packet-classification rules, wherein the second rule is made available by the application; when a first socket library call that is made by the application during its execution is detected, intercepting the first socket library call; and when the first socket library call has been intercepted, establishing a third rule that is based on the first socket library call; wherein the third rule is part of the first set of packet-classification rules, wherein the endpoint is capable, at least in part, of i) receiving a voice signal from a user of the endpoint, ii) digitizing the voice signal, and iii) transmitting a plurality of egress packets that comprise the digitized voice signal.