Client activity DNS optimization

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9319292-B2
Application number	US-201414210174-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 13, 2014
Priority date	Jun 14, 2011
Publication date	Apr 19, 2016
Grant date	Apr 19, 2016

Abstract

Client and user activity in an application or a browser are monitored to determine whether potential actions will result in a server being contacted. A DNS request to resolve the server's host name is generated to ensure the server's IP address is cached and available.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
monitoring, by a monitoring module at a mobile device, mobile device user activity;
based on the monitored activity, determining that a potential action will trigger a call by an application program to contact at least one target server;
before occurrence of the potential action that will trigger the call by the application program to contact the at least one target server, generating a domain name system (DNS) request to resolve a host name associated with the at least one target server; and
at the mobile device, receiving an address corresponding to the host name in response to the DNS request, wherein the address is to be stored in a cache at the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the monitoring module is internal to an operating system of the mobile device.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the monitoring module is in a browser.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the monitoring module comprises built-in browser code, a browser add-in, a browser plug-in, a browser script, a browser macro, a browser extension, or a browser library.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining that a potential action will trigger a call by an application program to contact the at least one target server comprises:
determining that after a prior launch of the application program, the application program called the at least one target server.

6. The method of claim 1 comprising:
upon detecting the call by the application program to contact the at least one target server, resolving the host name associated with the target server locally via the cached address.

7. The method of claim 6 comprising:
determining that the application program is unable to contact the at least one target server via the cached address; and
based on the application program being unable to contact the at least one target server via the cached address, expiring the cached address.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one target server is a first target server, the call is a first call, the DNS request is a first DNS request, and the method further comprises:
determining that after a prior launch of the application program, the application program made the first call to the first target server and made a second call to a second target server, different from the first target server; and
prior to the first and second calls being triggered and while the user is engaged in the activity, generating the first DNS request to resolve the host name associated with the first target server, and generating a second DNS request to resolve a host name associated with the second target server.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the address comprises an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining that a potential action will trigger a call by an application program to contact the at least one target server comprises:
scanning code of a web page for any Uniform Resource Identifier (“URI”) strings.

11. A method comprising:
monitoring, by a monitoring module at a client device, client device user activity;
based on the monitored activity, determining that a potential action will trigger a call by an application program to contact at least one target server;
before occurrence of the potential action that will trigger the call by the application program to contact the at least one target server, generating a domain name system (DNS) request to resolve a host name associated with the at least one target server; and
at the client device, receiving an address corresponding to the host name in response to the DNS request, wherein the address is to be stored in a cache at the client device.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the monitoring module is internal to an operating system of the client device.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the monitoring module is in a browser.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the monitoring module comprises built-in browser code, a browser add-in, a browser plug-in, a browser script, a browser macro, a browser extension, or a browser library.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein the determining that a potential action will trigger a call by an application program to contact the at least one target server comprises:
determining that after a prior launch of the application program, the application program called the at least one target server.

16. The method of claim 11 comprising:
upon detecting the call by the application program to contact the at least one target server, resolving the host name associated with the target server locally via the cached address.

17. The method of claim 16 comprising:
determining that the application program is unable to contact the at least one target server via the cached address; and
based on the application program being unable to contact the at least one target server via the cached address, expiring the cached address.

18. The method of claim 11 wherein the at least one target server is a first target server, the call is a first call, the DNS request is a first DNS request, and the method further comprises:
determining that after a prior launch of the application program, the application program made the first call to the first target server and made a second call to a second target server, different from the first target server; and
prior to the first and second calls being triggered and while the user is engaged in the activity, generating the first DNS request to resolve the host name associated with the first target server, and generating a second DNS request to resolve a host name associated with the second target server.

19. The method of claim 11 wherein the address comprises an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

20. The method of claim 11 wherein the step of determining that a potential action will trigger a call by an application program to contact the at least one target server comprises:
scanning code of a web page for any Uniform Resource Identifier (“URI”) strings.

Assignees

• Lookout Inc

Inventors

• Wyatt Timothy Micheal
• Anbalagapandian Anbu
• Mandal Ayan

Classifications

• H04L61/307

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W4/003

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L63/20 Primary

  for managing network security; network security policies in general (filtering policies H04L63/0227) · CPC title

• H04L61/308

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L61/605

  Electricity · mapped topic