Patent ID: 8042171

Claim:
A system configured to provide a network protection service for providing protective assistance to multiple subscribing hosts during times that one or more of the multiple subscribing hosts experiences adverse network conditions, the system comprising: one or more processing devices; a network connection configured to communicatively couple the system to the multiple subscribing hosts via a network; a data store configured to store cached information for each of the multiple subscribing hosts; and one or more modules that are provided by at least one of the one or more processing devices and that are configured to provide the network protection service for the multiple subscribing hosts by, for each of the multiple subscribing hosts: obtaining information from the subscribing host for use in configuring protective assistance provided by the network protection service to the subscribing host, the obtained information including a specified set of rules that are specific to the subscribing host and that are for use in filtering network traffic for the subscribing host, at least one of the rules in the specified set indicating how to use the stored cached information for the subscribing host; and monitoring for an adverse network condition for the subscribing host and, upon detecting that condition, providing protective assistance to the subscribing host by: causing network traffic directed to the subscribing host to be rerouted to the network protection service; determining whether a request in the rerouted network traffic is requesting information from the subscribing host that corresponds to the stored cached information for the subscribing host and if so, determining whether the at least one rules in the specified set for the subscribing host indicate to use the stored cached information for the subscribing host to respond to the request; responding to the request on behalf of the subscribing host with the cached information only if it is determined that the at least one rules in the specified set for the subscribing host indicate to use the stored cached information for the subscribing host to respond to the request; and forwarding a portion of the rerouted network traffic to the subscribing host, wherein the forwarded portion of the rerouted network traffic does not include the request corresponding to the cached information in the data store if the responding to the request is performed.