Patent ID: 7496031

Claim:
A system for routing a packet over a network, comprising: (a) a replication component that generates a replicate packet for each received packet, wherein the replication component forwards each received packet towards at least one server that is associated with a destination of the received packet; and (b) a distribution component that receives the replicate packet from the replication component, wherein the distribution component is arranged to perform actions, including: (i) forwarding the replicate packet to at least one probe in a plurality of probes, wherein a source MAC address in the replicate packet is unchanged; (ii) receiving a response packet from at least one probe in the plurality of probes in response to the replicate packet; (iii) transforming a source MAC address in the response packet to a MAC address of the distribution component; and (iv) forwarding the transformed packet based in part on a MAC address of the destination in the transformed packet; wherein the response packet comprises at least one of a reset command to request termination of a connection between the at least one server and a client associated with the received packet, or an indication of a detected threat.