Registering for internet-based proxy services

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9722970-B2
Application number	US-201514728961-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 2, 2015
Priority date	Apr 19, 2011
Publication date	Aug 1, 2017
Grant date	Aug 1, 2017

Abstract

A domain name is received from a customer. DNS is queried for multiple possible subdomains of the domain. For each subdomain that resolves, information about that subdomain's corresponding resource record is stored in a zone file that also includes a resource record for the domain name. The zone file is presented to the customer. A designation from the customer of which of the resource records are to point to an IP address of a proxy server is received. The resource records are modified according to the input of the customer and the zone file is propagated including the modified resource records.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method in a server, comprising:
receiving a domain name from a customer;
causing DNS (Domain Name System) to be queried for a predefined plurality of subdomains of the domain to determine whether those predefined plurality of subdomains of the domain exist for the domain;
for each subdomain of the predefined plurality of subdomains that resolves, storing information about a resource record that corresponds with that subdomain in a zone file that also includes a resource record for the domain name;
presenting the zone file to the customer, wherein the presented zone file includes the resource record for the domain name and each resource record that corresponds with each subdomain of the predefined plurality of subdomains that resolves;
receiving a designation from the customer of which of the resource records are to be protected by a proxy server;
determining that at least one of the predefined plurality of subdomains of the domain has Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) enabled;
generating an SSL certificate for that at least one of the predefined plurality of subdomains and causing that SSL certificate to be installed on the proxy server;
automatically causing those resource records designated by the customer to be modified to point to an IP address of the proxy server; and
causing the zone file including the modified resource records to be propagated.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein prior to propagating the zone file, performing the following:
providing an identification of a plurality of name servers; and
determining that the plurality of name servers have been modified to be authoritative for the domain.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the predefined plurality of subdomains are common across a plurality of domains.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the predefined plurality of subdomains include www, blog, web, and mail.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the proxy server is part of a cloud-based proxy service.

6. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium that provides instructions that, when executed by a processor of a server, cause said processor to perform operations comprising:
receiving a domain name from a customer;
causing DNS (Domain Name System) to be queried for a predefined plurality of subdomains of the domain to determine whether those predefined plurality of subdomains of the domain exist for the domain;
for each subdomain of the predefined plurality of subdomains that resolves, storing information about a resource record that corresponds with that subdomain in a zone file that also includes a resource record for the domain name;
presenting the zone file to the customer, wherein the presented zone file includes the resource record for the domain name and each resource record that corresponds with each subdomain of the predefined plurality of subdomains that resolves;
receiving a designation from the customer of which of the resource records are to be protected by a proxy server;
determining that at least one of the predefined plurality of subdomains of the domain has Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) enabled;
generating an SSL certificate for that at least one of the predefined plurality of subdomains and causing that SSL certificate to be installed on the proxy server;
automatically causing those resource records designated by the customer to be modified to point to an IP address of the proxy server; and
causing the zone file including the modified resource records to be propagated.

7. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 6 , wherein the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium further provides instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause said processor to perform operations prior to causing the zone file to be propagated including the following:
providing an identification of a plurality of name servers; and
determining that the plurality of name servers have been modified to be authoritative for the domain.

8. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 6 , wherein the predefined plurality of subdomains are common across a plurality of domains.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the predefined plurality of subdomains include www, blog, web, and mail.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 6 , wherein the proxy server is part of a cloud-based proxy service.

11. An apparatus, comprising:
a set of one or more processors;
a set of one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums storing instructions, that when executed by the set of processors, cause the set of processors to perform the following operations:
receive a domain name from a customer;
cause DNS (Domain Name System) to be queried for a predefined plurality of subdomains of the domain to determine whether those predefined plurality of subdomains of the domain exist for the domain;
for each subdomain of the predefined plurality of subdomains that resolves, store information about a resource record that corresponds with that subdomain in a zone file that also includes a resource record for the domain name;
present the zone file to the customer, wherein the presented zone file includes the resource record for the domain name and each resource record that corresponds with each subdomain of the predefined plurality of subdomains that resolves;
receive a designation from the customer of which of the resource records are to be protected by a proxy server;
determine that at least one of the predefined plurality of subdomains of the domain has Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) enabled;
generate an SSL certificate for that at least one of the predefined plurality of subdomains and cause that SSL certificate to be installed on the proxy server;
automatically cause those resource records designated by the customer to be modified to point to an IP address of the proxy server; and
cause the zone file including the modified resource records to be propagated.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the set of non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums further stores instructions, that when executed by the set of processors, cause the set of processors to perform the following operations prior to propagating the zone file:
provide an identification of a plurality of name servers; and
determine that the plurality of name servers have been modified to be authoritative for the domain.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the predefined plurality of subdomains are common across a plurality of domains.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the predefined plurality of subdomains include www, blog, web, and mail.

15. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the proxy server is part of a cloud-based proxy service.

Assignees

• Cloudflare Inc

Inventors

• Prince Matthew Browning
• Holloway Lee Hahn
• Zatlyn Michelle Marie

Classifications

• H04L63/14

  for detecting or protecting against malicious traffic · CPC title

• H04L63/0281

  Proxies · CPC title

• H04L67/1034

  Reaction to server failures by a load balancer · CPC title

• H04L69/40

  for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection (management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06) · CPC title

• H04L41/069

  using logs of notifications; Post-processing of notifications · CPC title