Patent ID: 7984186

Claim:
A method comprising the steps of: receiving a request from a network device, said request including an IP address of said network device; generating a domain name for locating a device configured to process a DNS query, said domain name corresponding to said IP address; sending said domain name to said network device; generating and sending a DNS query including said domain name and at least one local DNS setting of said network device from said network device to said device configured to process said DNS query; processing an association between said IP address and said at least one local DNS setting of said network device, wherein said processing includes at least one of storing, forwarding, analyzing monitoring, validating, and authenticating said association between said IP address and said at least one local DNS setting; and determining whether at least one of a current device IP address and current local DNA setting matches to a table of previously stored associations of approved prior IP addresses and prior local DNS settings.