Importance

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Abstract

An Internet access system (10) incorporates an access control subsystem (12), implemented with a communications server (14), one or more Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS) servers (16), and a remote access server (18) in network 21. Users are connected to the network by dial-up connections (22) through the communications server (14). When user (22) logs in through the communications server (14), RADIUS client software (45) first determines if user (22) is authorized by checking his password utilizing user profiles (46). The user profiles (46) also identify a filter 'F(Timmy)'. The RADIUS server (16) supplies the filter identification through the RADIUS client (45) for use by client software (44) for controlling access by the user (22) to Internet sites. The client software (44) then checks to see if the filter 'F(Timmy)' is stored locally in cache (50). If it is, the client software (44) uses it for controlling access. If not, the client software (44) sends a lookup request to the network access server (18), which stores the centralized permitted site list and the filters to be used as masks for checking access classifications of requested sites, to download the filter 'F(Timmy)', which is maintained in the server (14) memory for the rest of the user (22)'s session. The client (44) also keeps the local cache (50 of recently requested sites and recently used user filters for efficiency. When access to a site is requested, the client first checks the local cache (50) to see if the site is on the list stored there. In practice, the client software (44) and permit-based filtering technology is integrated in the communications operating system software that runs on the server (14) or routers (24), (32) or (34).

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First Claim