Patent ID: 8239537

Claim:
A method of limiting unwanted network traffic comprising: assigning each of a plurality of network addresses to one of a plurality of categories of network addresses based on a level of trust specifying an amount of data each of the plurality of network addresses may transfer; allocating connection resources to each of the plurality of categories based on a number of network addresses assigned to each of the plurality of categories and a level of trust of network addresses assigned to each of the plurality of categories; receiving a request for a connection from a sender; associating the request with a particular one of the plurality of categories of network addresses based on a network address associated with a network path of the request, in response to a network address of an initiator of the connection being unknown; and providing a portion of connection resources allocated to the particular one of the plurality of categories associated with the request for the connection, wherein connection resources allocated to a first category of the plurality of categories are sufficient to simultaneously support all connections from network addresses associated with the first category of the plurality of categories, connection resources allocated to a second category of the plurality of categories are sufficient to simultaneously support a predetermined number of connections from network addresses associated with the second category of the plurality of categories including an increase in a number of connections associated with the second category of the plurality of categories above a number of connections sufficient for the predetermined number of connections, connection resources allocated to a third category of the plurality of categories are insufficient to simultaneously support all connections from network addresses associated with the third category of the plurality of categories, and connection resources allocated to a fourth category of the plurality of categories are insufficient to support any connection associated with the fourth category of the plurality of categories to be maintained.