Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L63/00—Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security
  • H04L63/08—Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security for authentication of entities
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q50/00—Information and communication technology [ICT] specially adapted for implementation of business processes of specific business sectors, e.g. utilities or tourism
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q30/00—Commerce
  • G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L61/00—Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
  • H04L61/45—Network directories; Name-to-address mapping
  • H04L61/4505—Network directories; Name-to-address mapping using standardised directories; using standardised directory access protocols
  • H04L61/4511—Network directories; Name-to-address mapping using standardised directories; using standardised directory access protocols using domain name system [DNS]
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L67/00—Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
  • H04L67/14—Session management
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L2463/00—Additional details relating to network architectures or network communication protocols for network security covered by H04L63/00
  • H04L2463/102—Additional details relating to network architectures or network communication protocols for network security covered by H04L63/00 applying security measure for e-commerce
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L61/00—Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L63/00—Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security
  • H04L63/16—Implementing security features at a particular protocol layer
  • H04L63/166—Implementing security features at a particular protocol layer at the transport layer

Definitions

• the present invention relates to the field of domain name registration. More particularly, the invention relates to methods and apparatus, which provides an application program interface to enable the registration and maintenance of Internet domain names.
• FIG. 4 shows the sequence of steps for registration, a customer (Registrant) prepares to register new Web Address 100;
• the Registrant fills out a Service Agreement (102).
• the Service Agreement is submitted by e-mail to the Registrant, for example, to hostmaster@internic.net (step 104).
• the Request is automatically assigned a tracking number 106.
• the Service Agreement is automatically checked for errors 108.
• the Service Agreement is processed if there are no errors and the registrant is notified via e-mail when completed 112.
• Web Address registration is complete with a message. For example, the message may read: "Your Web Address registration is complete" (step 114).
• the customer is invoiced for the Web Address registration, step 116, and pays for the registration (step 118).
• the Registrar sends a re-registration notice to registrant 60 days before the two year anniversary of the initial registration (step 120). Should there be an error in the Service Agreement, the registration process is not completed and an e-mail is sent to the customer informing it of the problem (step 110). While this process works effectively, it is not without certain shortcomings. Most notably, the use of the Internet for e-mailing notices is not generally on a "real-time" basis. It may sometimes take several days for an e-mail to be delivered, particularly to parts of the world where the Internet support structure is not fully established. In addition, e-mails may become corrupted which creates further delays since the recipient must ask for the messages to be resent.
• Network Solutions, Inc. provides the NSl Wholesale Service Protocol ("WSP"), which establishes support of a real-time programmable interface for the purchase and management of Network Solutions, Inc. (“NSl”) products and services a system.
• WSP NSl Wholesale Service Protocol
• This system would permit users seeking registrations to complete the process, regardless of their level of expertise in computer technology in general, and the Internet in particular.
• the WSP uses a simple, connection-based, synchronized, ASCII text-based protocol to communicate with an NSl Wholesale System over the Internet, thereby allowing Wholesalers to securely and reliably create, modify, and delete customer accounts and various products including the registration and management of Internet domain names.
• the WSP consists of a set of commands that a Wholesaler may issue to create customers or domain-name-related products.
• Each command returns a set of 'properties' and major and minor error codes. In many cases, the result of one command is used as input to the next command.
• Wholesale commands are either synchronous or asynchronous.
• customer creation and management commands are synchronous, while domain creation and management commands are asynchronous.
• An "as-fast-as-possible" fulfillment system for asynchronous commands maintains queues in order to guarantee that the order is not lost in the case of external system problems.
• Typical synchronous response times are several seconds or less, while asynchronous times, for example, to complete a registration, are typically less than a few minutes.
• the present invention is directed to methods and apparatus for interfacing a user application program to a system for conducting transactions associated with managing Internet domain names by establishing over the Internet a connection between the user and the system; authenticating the right of the user to conduct a transaction associated with managing Internet domain names; establishing a secure socket layer within the application program interface and the system; receiving a request in the application program interface from the applications program to initiate a transaction following such authentication; and transmitting commands by the application program interface to the system effectuating the transaction.
• FIG. 1 is a diagram of a preferred embodiment of the invention, wherein an application program interface, WSP Java API, implements the functionality of a WSP in a series of Java object classes;
• FIG. 2 shows an exemplary flowchart of the method for interfacing a user application program to a system for conducting transactions associated with managing Internet domain names
• FIG. 3 shows an exemplary diagram of the apparatus for interfacing a user application program to a system for conducting transactions associated with managing Internet domain names.
• the methods and apparatus provides an application program interface that is accessed by user application programs to establish a connection to a system for conducting transactions associated with managing Internet domain names.
• a computer application program 12 typically provides an interface to the user to collect customer data.
• the computer application program 12 typically issues a session request to the application program interface, WSP Java API 14, in order to establish a session over the Internet 10 with the Wholesale System 16 and to issue various commands.
• WSP Java API 14 is essentially a Java 'wrapper' of the WSP. It consists of two main classes: NSIWholesaleAPI and WSPResponse.
• the NSIWholesaleAPI contains all of the methods for creating customers, products, and services.
• WSPResponse is a single class returned from most methods and contains the result of the issued command request and will optionally include any additional data that was generated by the request.
• WSP Java API 14 One advantage of using WSP Java API 14 is that when the NSIWholesaleAPI object is created, the object creates a 'pool' of SSL connections to the Wholesale system 16. This class removes the need to issue a 'session' command, and removes the burden from a Wholesaler of making and managing SSL connections. Multi-threaded applications may also use this connection pool.
• FIG. 2 shows an exemplary flowchart of the invention.
• a user 20 sends a request to the application program 12 to conduct a transaction associated with managing internet domain names.
• the application program 12 typically provides an interface to a user to collect customer data.
• the application program 12 typically issues a session request to the application program interface 14 to establish a session over the Internet 10 with the Wholesale System 16.
• the application program interface 14 will authenticate a user's right to conduct a transaction by attempting to connect to the Wholesale System 16 using user account information received from the application program 12. If the authentication fails, the application program interface 14 will attempt two additional authentications.
• the application program interface 14 will send the result of the authentication to the application program 12. If the authentication is successful, the application program interface
• the application program 14 will establish a secure socket layer with the Wholesale System 16.
• the application program 12 will send a request to the application program interface 14 to make available the set of commands through the instantiation of an object of class NSIWholesaleAPI.
• the application program 12 may now send a request to any of the object methods to request the processing of a command.
• the application program interface 14 will receive the command request along with any data.
• the application program interface 14 will format the data and the command into a string as described in detail in the aforementioned copending U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 09/544,305.
• the application program 14 will then transmit the request across the Internet 10 to the Wholesale
• the Wholesale System 16 will process the request and will return the result of the transaction across the Internet 10 to the application program interface 14.
• the application program interface 14 will send a response to the application program 12.
• FIG. 3 is a diagram of an exemplary computer environment in which methods consistent with the present invention may be implemented.
• a component is provided for a user 20, to send a request to the application program 12 to conduct a transaction associated with managing Internet domain names.
• the application program 12 typically provides an interface to user 20 to collect customer data.
• the application program 12 typically issues a session request to the application program interface 14 to establish a session over the Internet 10 with the Wholesale System 16.
• a component is also provided for authenticating the right of the user 20 to conduct a transaction.
• the application program interface 14 will authenticate a user's right to conduct a transaction by attempting to connect to the Wholesale System 16 using the user account information received from the application program 12. If the authentication fails, the application program interface 14 will attempt two additional authentications.
• the application program interface 14 will send the result of the authentication to the application program 12.
• a component is also provided for establishing a secure socket layer if the authentication is successful.
• the application program interface 14 will establish a secure socket layer with the Wholesale System 16.
• a component is also provided for initiating a transaction following a successful authentication.
• the application program 12 will send a request to the application program interface 14 to make available the set of commands that are available in the Wholesale System 16 through the instantiation of an object of class NSIWholesaleAPI.
• the application program 12 may now send a request to any of the object methods to request the processing of a command.
• the application program interface 14 will receive the command request along with any data.
• a component is also provided for transmitting commands through the secure socket layer.
• the application program interface 14 will format the data and command into a string as described in detail in the aforementioned copending U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 09/544,305.
• the application program 14 will then transmit the request across the Internet 10 to the Wholesale System 16 to effectuate the transaction.
• the Wholesale System 16 will process the request and return the result of the transaction across the Internet 10 to the application program interface 14.
• the application program interface 14 will send a response to the application program 12.
• the name of the WSP Java API configuration file is typically WSP j avaAPI . conf . This
• the file contains specific information about each Wholesale user.
• the values for the parameters in that file are provided when a Wholesale agreement is completed with a Registrar, such as NSL
• the file includes the following parameters:
• the NSIWholesaleAPI class constructs an instance of a new NSIWholesaleAPI object whose methods can be called to perform Wholesale-related activities, such as connecting to the Wholesale System 16 over the Internet through a SSL, and it allows the computer application program 12 to create and manage Internet domain names.
• the class definition for NSIWholesaleAPI includes the following:
• This method creates a business customer account and returns an automatically generated customer account id.
• the WSPResponse class represents the various components of a WSP response.
• a WSPResponse will be returned for command request that are issued through the application program interface 14.
• the response will describe, in as much detail as possible, the result of the issued request, and will optionally include any additional information that was generated by the request.
• a result consists of a "result code” followed by a descriptive "result message.”
• the result code consists of a major result code followed by a period ('.'), followed by a minor result code.
• the three-digit major result code provides a general indication of the success or failure of an issued request. In most cases, one or more result properties are returned.
• the three-digit minor result code may provide additional information about the major result code.
• Each command request has its own set of minor result code values or may have the value (000).
• the WSPResponse and the result code are described in more detail in the aforementioned copending U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 09/544,305.
• a result property consists of a property key followed by a colon (':'), followed by a property value.
• plain text is returned (e.g. information returned from the Help command).
• the result property is described in more detail in the aforementioned copending U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 09/544,305.
• the class definition for WSPResponse includes the following:
• the NSIWholesaleException class is a user-defined exception class denoting a special error thrown by the methods in the class NSIWholesaleAPI.
• exceptions of the class are user-defined exception classes denoting a special error thrown by the methods in the class NSIWholesaleAPI.
• NSIWholesaleException are thrown (a) when class initialization fails; (b) when a method in NSIWholesaleAPI is called without successfully initializing the class; (c) when a command cannot be completed (for example due to communications problems); or (d) to reframe an NSIException thrown at a lower level to give additional context information.
• the class WSPExcept ion is the parent for wholesale protocol exception classes which
• InvalidArgumentException and InvalidResponseFormatException are the detail class children of WSPException. Both methods have the same internal functionality as WSPExcepton. In addition, both classes are independent, so that methods receiving the thrown
• InvalidResponseFormatException if the data returned by the Wholesale Server 16 as part of a command, is not properly formatted.
• the class definition for NSIWholesaleException includes
• the class definition for WSPException includes the following:
• the class definition for InvalidResponseFormatException includes the following:
• the invention will be further clarified by the following example showing a computer program file for creating a session with a Wholesale system to begin Wholesale operation, which is intended to be purely exemplary of the invention.
• the WSP Java API 14 is an implementation of the WSP. In every case where the WSP Java API 14 is used, the first steps are to initialize a session and then create an instance of the class to reference the methods. Individual calls to methods are instances of a single protocol exchange. Each call contains all necessary information (e.g., customer identification, contact information). Except for session information, no information carries over from method to method.
• the first evocation of a routine in the WSP Java API 14 is to the class method NSIWholesaleAPI.init to initialize the interface to the Wholesale System 16.
• the second evocation creates an instance of the class NSIWholesaleAPI, which makes available to the application program 12 the methods to send commands to the Wholesale System 16.
• the application program 12 can now send command requests to the application program interface 14.
• the last evocation is to the shutdown method, which ends the session with the Wholesale System 16.
• WSP This Java-based Wholesale Services Protocol
• WSP is a simple, connection-based, ASCII text-based protocol. It allows wholesalers to securely and reliably create, modify, and lookup customer accounts and various products via a single client/server interface.
• LineNumberReader in new LineNumberReader (new FileReader (configFileName) ) ;
• connectionSoTimeout - Provided by NSI
• the Wholesaler Account number WholesaleAPI .WholesalerPassword - Provided by NSI
• connectionProtocol properties . getProperty ( "WholesaleAPI . connectionProtocol " ) ;
• ⁇ api null; throw new NSIWholesaleException ( "Failed to verify connection protocol " + connectionProtocol) ;
• api null; System. out .printIn ( "NSIWholesaleAPI .init (Properties) completed successfully” ) ; ⁇
• NSIWholesaleAPI MUST have
• This method is used to authenticate a wholesaler and to provide
• This method is used to authenticate a wholesaler and to provide
• Session command may not be issued
• This method provides information about a specified target.
• This method verifies whether or not a specified domain name is available .
• This method creates a business customer account and returns an * automatically generated customer account id.
• This method creates a business customer account and returns an
• makeRequest (COMBO_CREATE_BUSINESS_ACCOUNT, allParmsAndAttrs) ; pool . checkln (conn) ; return returnCode; ⁇ catch (Exception e) ⁇ try ⁇ pool .release (conn) ;
• makeRequest ( COMBO_CREATE_BUSINESS_ACCOUNT, allParmsAndAttrs) ; pool . checkln (conn) ; return returnCode; ⁇ catch (Exception e) ⁇ try ⁇ pool .release (conn) ;
• makeRequest (COMBO_CREATE_TECHNICAL_CONTACT, allParmsAndAttrs) ; pool . checkln (conn) ; return returnCode; ⁇ catch (Exception e) ⁇ try ⁇ pool . release (conn) ;
• ⁇ f inally return createTechnicalContact ( aFirstName, aLastName, aOrganization, aAddressl, aCountryCode , aPhone, aEmail, aTechContactPassword, aCity, optionalAttributes , count + 1) ; ⁇ ⁇ ⁇

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• 2000
  • 2000-09-15 CA CA002384834A patent/CA2384834A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2000-09-15 KR KR1020027003477A patent/KR20020042834A/ko not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2000-09-15 WO PCT/US2000/025305 patent/WO2001020484A2/en not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2000-09-15 AU AU74905/00A patent/AU7490500A/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2000-09-15 CN CN00815699A patent/CN1390416A/zh active Pending
  • 2000-09-15 JP JP2001523994A patent/JP2003523650A/ja active Pending
  • 2000-09-15 MX MXPA02002789A patent/MXPA02002789A/es unknown
  • 2000-09-15 BR BR0013989-0A patent/BR0013989A/pt not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2000-09-15 IL IL14862800A patent/IL148628A0/xx unknown
  • 2000-09-15 EP EP00963496A patent/EP1222790A2/de not_active Withdrawn
• 2002
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