Patent ID: 6904459

Claim:
In a networked environment, wherein one or more client computer systems make requests for information from a server computer system, the server computer system providing information in response to the requests from the one or more client computer systems, the server computer system having one or more listen sockets and having a backlog queue for queuing connection requests that the server computer system cannot currently handle, a method of the server computer system reducing denials of service even though the server computer system is experiencing a denial of service attack, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of connection requests from said one or more client computer systems; establishing a connection socket for at least one of the plurality of connection requests without placing the connection request in a backlog queue; for each connection request for which the server computer system cannot currently establish a connection socket, placing the connection request in the backlog queue without then establishing a connection socket; determining that the backlog queue is being used; in response to the determination, identifying any connection sockets that have no received request data; and disconnecting the identified connection socket, so as to reduce an impact of a denial of service attack.