Abstract: An apparatus, method and system for use in categorizing Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) when controlling or monitoring access to the Internet from a client. A request message is generated to request categorization of a specified URL. The request message comprises a licensing field carrying a license key. A remote server receives the license key and, if valid, generates a reply message denoting a category of the specified URL. The license key enables workload at the server to be managed efficiently.

Abstract: An apparatus method and system are described for categorizing Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) when accessing the Internet 20 from a client 12. A request message 500 is generated to request categorization of a specified URL, and a category is provided in a reply message 600. The specified URL and the category are added to a category cache. In a second or subsequent instance of a URL request referring to the specified URL, the category is determined from the category cache. This reduces communication traffic in a network such as the Internet 20.

Abstract: A system method and apparatus are provided for use in monitoring or controlling internet access at a client device 12. A request message 500 is generated to request categorization of a specified URL, and a reply message 600 is returned denoting a category of the specified URL amongst a predetermined set of categories. The request message 500 comprises a UDP package including a sequence number, a time stamp, and a data section carrying the specified URL. The reply message 600 comprises a UDP packet and includes the sequence number and the time stamp from the request message 500, and a data section identifying the category. The request message 500 and the reply message 600 are economical and provide efficient communication across a local area network or the Internet 20.

Abstract: A remote site filtering and monitoring system and method is described in which the Internet accesses of a remote device are monitored and categorized by a remote server in real-time. The system also provides for offline access logging and subsequent uploading, adjustable filtering sensitivities and particular HTTP port filtering.

Abstract: A database comprises a plurality of keys representing respective data items stored in the database and respective data tags associated with at least some of the data items. Data tags represent different identifiers or categories among which the associated data items are grouped. The database is arranged in the form of a tree-structured directed graph in which each of the plurality of keys is represented by a series of nodes and arcs defining a path between a root node and a terminal node, each node being linked to at least one other node by a respective arc, respective arcs for a given one of the plurality of keys representing a respective character or characters of the given key. The arcs and the nodes depending from the root node of data items which represent a sequence of characters shared by different keys are combined, and the data tags are associated with the arcs.

Abstract: A database structure (400) stores data representing a plurality of resource identifiers (200) such as URLs in a computing system. The URLs (200) are each associated with a respective category code (310). Each of resource identifiers (200) is hashed to provide a hash value (300) which is divided into at least first and second hash portions (301, 302). The first hash portions (301) index a main hash array (410) to select a main data block (421) in a main data section (420) holding a set of the second hash portions (302) and the respective category codes (310). For security and compactness, optionally the hash value (300) is further divided to provide a third hash portion (303) which is discarded and is not used to access the database (400).

Abstract: An apparatus method and system are described for categorizing Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) when accessing the Internet 20 from a client 12. A request message 500 is generated to request categorization of a specified URL, and a category is provided in a reply message 600. The specified URL and the category are added to a category cache. In a second or subsequent instance of a URL request referring to the specified URL, the category is determined from the category cache. This reduces communication traffic in a network such as the Internet 20.

Abstract: An apparatus method and system are described for categorizing Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) when accessing the Internet from a client. A request message is generated to request categorization of a specified URL, and a category is provided in a reply message. The specified URL and the category are added to a category cache. In a second or subsequent instance of a URL request referring to the specified URL, the category is determined from the category cache. This reduces communication traffic in a network such as the Internet.