Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer conferencing – Demand based messaging
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-22
2001-03-13
Coulter, Kenneth R. (Department: 2154)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer conferencing
Demand based messaging
Reexamination Certificate
active
06202087
ABSTRACT:
FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a system and a method for replacement of error messages with non-error messages, and in particular, for the replacement of such an error message received as the result of a failed address resolution request through the Internet.
The explosion of connections by individual users to the Internet, and the vast increase in the number of Web sites, has made the search for information difficult. A resource on the Internet, such as a Web site, is accessed by indicating its unique address, such as an IP (Internet Protocol) address. Often a resource is requested by resource name, as a text string for example, rather than by resource address. A suitable address resolution mechanism is therefore required to translate the resource name into the corresponding address. Since the character of the Internet is inherently dynamic, with many different resources, resources may be requested which no longer exist, have a changed name, or indeed never existed at all. Therefore, many requests for address resolution fail, in which case the resolving mechanism returns an error message. By displaying this error message, software programs indicate to the user that the requested resource name was not found in the address database or the server could not process the request, but does not give much more information to the user.
Rather than simply displaying an error message, a more useful solution would redirect the user to another resource, in which the user can optionally find additional information. For example, if the requested resource is a Web site or a Web page, the other resource could optionally be a Web page which not only indicates that the request has failed, but also suggests additional information such as links to alternative Web pages, a search engine, or advertisements. This information could be specific to the requested resource name, the type of the software program that generated the request, and/or the identity or other properties of the requesting user. Thus, much more focused, specific information could be delivered to the user, rather than simply indicating that the requested address resolution had failed.
Although certain Web browser software products attempt to provide such additional information by intercepting the error message at the client computer, these products do not change the packet of the error message in order to provide such additional information. Rather, these products simply display a different message through the Web browser. Thus, currently no software program is available which changes the packet of the error message in order to provide the additional information to the user.
Therefore, there is an unmet need for, and it would be highly useful to have, a system and a method for replacing error messages, with non-error messages produced by changing the packet of the error message itself. The non-error messages optionally direct the requester to information specific to the requested resource name, the type of the software program that generated the request, and/or the identity or other properties of the requesting user.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is of a system and a method for replacing error messages, received from a server as a result of requests which are not resolvable, with non-error messages. The non-error messages can include substantially any type of content or information, such as advertisements, promotional or other information for products, persons or ideas, publications, educational materials, public service announcements or substantially any other types of information, or a link to one or more additional resources through a resource address.
For example, the method of the present invention could be used to replace errors generated by an address resolution server, such as a DNS (domain name service) server, by non-error messages. The non-error messages may redirect the software application requesting the address resolution to a particular Web page, for example. This particular Web page is optionally specific to the particular resource name, to the type of software program requesting the resource address resolution, and/or to the identity or other properties of the requesting user. Preferably, the non-error message is generated by a hardware device and is then sent by this hardware device to the software program requesting the address resolution, instead of the error message. However, the error message may also be replaced by software components, including but not limited to, drivers and software programs, running either on the server computer, the client computer or another computer system between the server computer and the client computer. The error message is optionally replaced explicitly, in that the error message is actually generated before being replaced in a two-stage process; or implicitly, in that the non-error message is generated rather than the error message, in a single stage process.
Other examples include error messages generated by other servers such as HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) servers, E-mail servers, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) servers, or Telnet servers, and error messages generated by a firewall in place of a server, when a particular request is not permitted.
According to the present invention, there is provided a system for replacing an error message with a non-error message when a query is non-resolvable, the system comprising: (a) a network device for sending the query; (b) a server device, connected to the network device, for receiving the query and for determining whether the query is resolvable by the server device, such that if the query is non-resolvable, the server device generates the error message; and (c) a non-error message generator for intercepting the error message and for altering at least a portion of the error message to form the non-error message, the non-error message generator sending the non-error message to the network device.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method for replacing an error message with a non-error message when a query is not resolvable, the steps of the method comprising: (a) providing a network device for connecting to the network; (b) providing a server for connecting to the network; (c) sending the query by the network device to the server; (d) receiving the query; (e) if the query is not resolvable, generating the error message by the server; (f) intercepting the error message; (g) altering at least a portion of the error message to form the non-error message; and (h) sending the non-error message in place of the error message to the network device.
Optionally and preferably, the non-error message generator could be an implicit feature of the server device, such that the server device does not actually produce the error message. Rather, the server device would directly produce the non-error message.
Hereinafter, the term “Web browser” refers to any software program, which can display multimedia data such as text, graphics, or both, from Web pages on World Wide Web sites. Hereinafter, the term “Web page” refers to any document available for download and display, including, but not limited to, documents written in a mark-up language such as HTML (Hyper-text Mark-up Language), VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language), dynamic HTML, XML (Extended Mark-up Language) or related computer languages thereof. Hereinafter, the term “Web site” refers to at least one Web page, and preferably a plurality of Web pages, virtually connected to form a coherent group. For the purposes of the present invention, the terms “Web page” and “Web site” are interchangeable. Hereinafter, the term “HTTP server” refers to a server which serves at least one Web page to a Web browser.
Hereinafter, the phrase “display a Web page” includes all actions necessary to render at least a portion of the information on the Web page available to the computer user. As such, the phrase includes, but is not limited to, the static visual display of static graphical information, the audible
Coulter Kenneth R.
Friedman Mark M.
Gadish Ofer
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