JP2001350733A - Device and method for acquiring information and computer readable medium recording program for computer to perform execute the same method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To select a proxy server to repeat an access request to an information providing server corresponding to the utility purpose of the user of a web browser. SOLUTION: A selection information acquiring part 11 acquires selection information showing the utility purpose, a proxy server selecting part 13 selects the proxy server on the basis of the contents of the selection information acquired from the selection information acquiring part 11, and the address of the selected proxy server is acquired from a proxy server address recording part 12. Then, a selected address recording part 14 records the address (selected address) acquired by the proxy server selecting part 13, a URL acquiring part 15 acquires a URL, and an information providing request preparing part 16 acquires the URL from the URL acquiring part 15, acquires the selected address from the selected address recording part 14 and prepares an information providing request with the URL and the selected address as contents. Then, a transmitting/receiving part 17 transmits the information providing request to the proxy server specified by the selected address contained in the information providing request.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a network system for acquiring and browsing information on a web server on the Internet via a proxy server, and particularly to a client computer used in a similar network system in a company. , A web browser executed on a client computer. Note that a web browser is executed on a client computer, and is an HTTP (Hypertext).
URL (Uniform R) by Internet protocol such as Transfer Protocol (Transfer Protocol).
information specified by the resource locator (WWW) on the Internet.
de Web) software that is obtained and browsed from a server (web server). Also, the proxy server
A server that can acquire information from the Web browser to the Internet and also performs caching, so that it can respond quickly to frequently accessed information and realizes effective use of the network. It is.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the rapid spread of the Internet, all kinds of information can be obtained from WWW servers connected to the Internet. On the other hand, since the number of users who browse information has increased rapidly, there has been a problem that information can not be browsed smoothly for business use during the busiest time, especially in companies. In other words, a plurality of relay servers called proxy servers are usually installed between the client and the WWW server, but in the most busy times, a huge access request exceeding the processing capacity of the proxy server is sent to a specific proxy server. May concentrate. In this case, since the requests are skewed to a specific proxy server, the system resources cannot be effectively used, and the overall throughput decreases.

As a conventional technique for solving this problem, there is a distributed file system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-021134. Hereinafter, this prior art will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a system configuration according to the related art. In the figure, reference numeral 101 denotes an information providing server computer, which is a computer providing some service on a network, for example, a WWW server. 1
Reference numeral 02 denotes a file object, which includes a network protocol and a network address (name of a server computer) used by the distributed file system, a file name,
A pair with the file entity. A proxy server computer 103 relays an access request from the client computer 104 to the information providing server computer 101 and has a cache function. In FIG. 7, two servers, a proxy server computer A and a proxy server computer B, are arranged. Reference numeral 104 denotes a client computer, which is a computer directly used by the user. A client process 105 requests the information providing server computer to provide information (performs a read request for a file object). 106 is redi
A proxy server computer which is a collector process and which should relay a read request from a client process. Reference numeral 107 denotes a cache file, which is a file for implementing a cache function of the proxy server computer. A wide area network 108 connects the information providing server computer 101 and the proxy server computer 103.

Next, the operation will be described. A user who intends to receive provision of information from the information providing server computer 101 specifies a URL in the client process 105 of the client computer 104 and sends a read request to redi.
to the process 106. Upon receiving the read request, the redirector process determines which of the proxy server computer A 103a and the proxy server computer B 103b relays the request based on the URL included in the request. Specifically, the URL included in the read request is extracted, a calculation is performed by a hash function based on the extracted URL, and a proxy server computer to be relayed is determined. URL as a hash function
The remainder obtained by adding all the character codes of the characters included in the file object name expressed in the format and dividing by the number of proxy server computers is used. The proxy server computer that relays the read request is determined by the value calculated by the hash function, and the read request is relayed to the selected proxy server computer. With such a configuration, in the related art, access requests from client computers are evenly distributed to a plurality of proxy servers.

[0005]

As described above, in the prior art, the proxy server computer to be relayed is selected based on the URL included in the read request, and the processing load of the relay is distributed. However, in the related art, since the URL is used as a criterion for selecting a proxy server, the purpose of use of the user cannot be considered when selecting the proxy server. For this reason, it has not been possible to recognize whether the access request is for business or non-business. That is, when a plurality of proxy servers are connected, a proxy server having a higher processing capability should be selected for an access request used for a business, and a processing server having a higher processing capability for a non-business access request. A proxy server is not required. However, in the related art, since the proxy server is selected based on the URL, it is not possible to judge whether the service is for business use or for non-business use. Things have been relayed by proxy servers with high processing power. Therefore, the present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and aims to appropriately install a proxy server according to the purpose of use of a web browser user and to construct and operate a network. It is an object of the present invention to efficiently execute business use of a web browser in a corporate network.

[0006]

An information obtaining apparatus for obtaining information by making a request to provide information to an information providing apparatus for providing information, wherein the information obtaining apparatus transmits the information to the information providing apparatus by the information obtaining apparatus. An information acquisition device that selects a specific relay device from a plurality of relay devices that relay the information provision request and requests information provision to the information provision device via the selected specific relay device; A selection information acquisition unit that acquires selection information that is information serving as a reference for selecting the specific relay device from the device, and a relay device identification information record that records relay device identification information that is information for identifying the relay device Unit, based on the selection information obtained by the selection information obtaining unit, selects a specific relay device from the plurality of relay devices, and stores the specific relay device from the relay device identification information recording unit. A relay device selecting unit that obtains relay device identification information indicating the relay device of the present invention, an information providing device identification information obtaining unit that obtains information providing device identification information that is information for identifying the information providing device, and the relay device selecting unit An information providing request creating unit that creates an information providing request including the relay device identification information acquired by the information processing device and the information providing device identification information acquired by the information providing device identification information acquiring unit; A transmission unit that transmits the information provision request to the relay device identified by the relay device identification information included in the information provision request created by the unit.

An information acquisition method for acquiring information by making an information provision request to an information provision apparatus for providing information, wherein the information provision request is relayed by the information acquisition method to the information provision apparatus. In the information acquisition method of selecting a specific relay device from a plurality of relay devices to be performed and making a request to provide information to the information providing device via the selected specific relay device, the specific relay device A selection information acquisition step of acquiring selection information that is information serving as a reference for selecting a device; a relay device identification information recording step of recording relay device identification information that is information for identifying the relay device; Based on the selection information obtained in the obtaining step, select a specific relay device from the plurality of relay devices, and execute the relay device identification information recording step. A relay device selecting step of obtaining relay device identification information indicating the specific relay device; an information providing device identification information obtaining step of obtaining information providing device identification information that is information for identifying the information providing device; An information providing request creating step of creating an information providing request including the relay device identification information acquired by the selecting step and the information providing device identification information acquired by the information providing device identifying information acquiring step; Transmitting the information provision request to the relay device identified by the relay device identification information included in the information provision request created by the request creating step.

An information acquisition method for acquiring information by making an information provision request to an information provision device for providing information, wherein the information provision request is relayed by the information acquisition method to the information provision device. A program for causing a computer to execute an information acquisition method of selecting a specific relay device from a plurality of relay devices to be performed and making a request to provide information to the information providing device via the selected specific relay device is recorded. In a computer readable medium,
A selection information acquisition step of acquiring selection information that is information serving as a reference for selecting the specific relay device from the plurality of relay devices; and a relay device that records relay device identification information that is information for identifying the relay device. Device identification information recording step, based on the selection information obtained in the selection information acquisition step, select a specific relay device from the plurality of relay devices, from the relay device identification information recording step the specific relay device A relay device selecting step of obtaining the relay device identification information shown in FIG. 1, an information providing device identification information obtaining step of obtaining information providing device identification information that is information for identifying the information providing device, and the relay device selecting step. The relay device identification information; and the information providing device identification information acquired in the information providing device identification information acquiring step. An information provision request creating step of creating an information provision request including: the information provision request to the relay device identified by the relay device identification information included in the information provision request created by the information provision request creation step. A computer readable medium having recorded thereon a program for causing a computer to execute an information acquisition method, comprising: a transmitting step of transmitting.

[0009]

FIG. 1 shows a network configuration including an information acquisition apparatus according to the present invention. 1 in the figure is
An information acquisition device (client computer) that acquires various information from the information providing device. Reference numeral 2 denotes an information providing server, which is an information providing device that provides information, and corresponds to, for example, a WWW server. Reference numeral 3 denotes a proxy / caching server (hereinafter, referred to as a proxy server), which is a relay device that relays communication between the information acquisition device and the information providing device. Reference numeral 4 denotes a wide area network connecting the information providing server and the proxy server, for example, the Internet. In the figure, each of the two information acquisition devices 1a and 1b is connected to both a proxy server A3a and a proxy server B3b, and an information provision request of each information acquisition device is made by either of the proxy servers A and B. It can be relayed.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a module configuration of the information acquisition apparatus according to the present invention. Reference numeral 11 in the figure denotes a selection information acquisition unit, which acquires selection information. The selection information is information serving as a criterion for selecting a specific proxy server 3 from a plurality of proxy servers. For example, a use purpose such as whether access to the information providing server is a business purpose or a non-business purpose. Is information indicating Reference numeral 12 denotes a proxy server address recording unit, which is a relay device identification information recording unit, in which the address of the proxy server 3 that relays the information provision request is recorded. Reference numeral 13 denotes a proxy server selection unit that is a relay device selection unit, and selects a proxy server that relays an information provision request according to the content of the selection information acquired by the selection information acquisition unit 11. A selected address recording unit 14 records the address of the proxy server 3 selected by the proxy server selection unit 13. Reference numeral 15 denotes a URL acquisition unit serving as an information providing device identification information acquiring unit, which acquires a URL that is information for identifying an information providing server. 16
Is an information provision request creation unit that creates an information provision request to the information provision server. 17 is a transmitting / receiving unit,
The information provision request created by the information provision request creation unit 16 is
The data is transmitted to the proxy server 3 selected by the proxy server selection unit 13.

In this embodiment, the contents of the web browser are assumed to be implemented with these various modules 11 to 17 in the information acquisition device. It may be mounted on a device.

The selection information acquisition unit 11 acquires selection information indicating whether access to the information providing server is for business use or non-business purpose. As an example of a selection information acquisition unit of the selection information acquisition unit 11, a form using a display screen shown in FIG. 3 can be considered. FIG. 3 shows a screen display example displayed on the browser, in which a “business” button 5 and a “non-business” button 6 are displayed.
It has. The “business” button 5 is pressed when the user accesses the information providing server for business use purposes,
The “outside business” button 6 is pressed when the user accesses for a purpose other than business use. When the user presses the “business” button or the “non-business” button, a signal indicating “business” or “non-business” is sent to the selection information acquisition unit 11,
Selection signal acquisition unit is a signal indicating "business" or "out of business",
That is, selection information can be obtained.

The proxy server selection unit 13 acquires selection information from the selection information acquisition unit 11 and presets a proxy server to be selected for each acquired selection information. For example, when there is a difference in the processing capacity of the proxy server connected to the network, and when the selection information obtained from the selection information obtaining unit 11 is “business”, the proxy server A having the higher processing capacity is selected. If you ’re out of business,
The proxy server to be selected is set in advance so that the proxy server B having relatively inferior processing capacity is selected. Then, a request to acquire the address of the selected proxy server is made to the proxy server address recording unit 12, and the address of the selected proxy server 3 is acquired from the proxy server address recording unit 12.

The selected address recording unit 14 temporarily records the address (selected address) obtained by the proxy server selecting unit 13 from the proxy server address recording unit 12 and receives an acquisition request from the information provision request creating unit 16. In this case, the recorded selection address is delivered to the information provision request creating unit.

The URL acquisition unit 15 acquires a URL that is identification information of the information providing server 2 to be accessed. For example, the URL acquisition unit 15 acquires the URL input by the user in the URL input box 7 set on the screen display shown in FIG. Further, the URL acquisition unit 15 passes the acquired URL to the information provision request creation unit 16.

The information providing request creating unit 16 acquires the URL of the information providing server 2 to be accessed from the URL acquiring unit 15. In addition, a request to acquire the address (selected address) of the proxy server selected by the proxy server selecting unit 13 is made to the selected address recording unit 14, and the selected address is acquired from the selected address recording unit 14. The information provision request creation unit 16 receives the URL from the URL acquisition unit 15
An information provision request including L and the selected address acquired from the selected address recording unit 14 is created.

The operation of the information acquisition apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. First, in step S401, the selection information obtaining unit 11 obtains selection information indicating “business” or “outside business”. As described above, the "business" button or the "non-business" button on the screen shown in FIG.
When the user presses any of the buttons, the selection information acquisition unit 11 can acquire the selection information of “business” or “outside business”. Next, the selection information acquisition unit 1
The selection information acquired in step 1 is passed to the proxy server selection unit 13, and the proxy server selection unit 13 selects the proxy server 3 (S402). Specific processing will be described with reference to FIG. S5
In step 01, the proxy server selecting unit 13 acquires the selection information of business / non-business from the selection information obtaining unit 11, and determines whether the obtained selection information is “business” or “non-business” (S502). When it is determined that the selection information is “business”, the proxy server selecting unit 13 selects a proxy server corresponding to “business”, and requests the proxy server address recording unit 12 to obtain the address of the selected proxy server. Is performed (S503). In the above-described example, the proxy server A3a corresponding to “business” is selected, and an acquisition request for the address of the proxy server A3a is made. On the other hand, when it is determined that the selection information is “outside of business”, the proxy server selecting unit 13 selects a proxy server corresponding to “outside of business” and sends the selected proxy server to the proxy server address recording unit 12. An address acquisition request is made (S504). In the example described above, the proxy server B3b corresponding to "out of business" is selected, and a request to acquire the address of the proxy server B3b is made. As described above, since the proxy server that performs the relay is set in advance depending on the business / non-business, the proxy server selecting unit 13 selects the proxy server 3 according to the set contents. Next, the proxy server selecting unit 13 acquires the address of the selected proxy server 3 from the proxy server address recording unit 12, and passes the acquired proxy server address (selected address) to the selected address recording unit 14 (S50).
6). Next, the selected address recording unit 14 acquires the selected address from the proxy server selection unit 13 and records the selected address (S403).

Next, the URL obtaining unit 15 obtains the URL (S404). As described above, the URL acquisition unit 15 acquires, for example, the URL input by the user in the URL input box 7 shown in FIG. Next, the URL acquisition unit 15
Passes the obtained URL to the information provision request creation unit 16,
The information provision request creation unit 16 creates an information provision request (S405). A specific processing procedure will be described with reference to FIG. First, the information provision request creation unit 16
The URL is acquired from the RL acquisition unit 15 (S601). By obtaining the URL, the information provision request creating unit 16 requests the selected address recording unit 14 to acquire the recorded selected address to create the information provision request (S
602). Next, the information provision request creating unit 16 acquires the selected address from the selected address recording unit 14 (S60).
3), an information provision request including the URL acquired from the URL acquisition unit 15 and the selected address acquired from the selected address recording unit 14 is created (S604). As will be described later, the transmission / reception unit 17 specifies the proxy server to which the information provision request is to be transmitted based on the proxy server address (selected address) included in the information provision request. Also, when the information providing server 2 provides information to the information acquisition device 1 (when a response is returned to the information acquisition device), the information provision is relayed by the proxy server address (selected address) included in the information provision request. Can specify the proxy server to perform. Next, the information provision request creation unit 1
6 passes the created information provision request to the transmission / reception unit 17.

The transmission / reception unit 17 having acquired the information provision request from the information provision request creation unit 16 transmits the information provision request to the corresponding proxy server 3 based on the proxy server address included in the information provision request (S406). ).

Although the present embodiment has been described on the premise that information "business / non-business" is used as selection information, other information can be used as selection information.

As described above, the information acquiring apparatus according to the present invention can acquire, for example, selection information of “business / non-business” from a user, and can change a proxy server to be used according to the selection information. For this reason, it is possible to appropriately install a proxy server and construct a network according to the purpose of use, and to improve the throughput in a corporate network and effectively use a web browser.

As described above, the information acquiring apparatus according to the present invention has the following features. A web browser with the following items I. Two buttons that display “business” and “outside business” and are pressed exclusively; Function to use different proxies depending on the pressed state of the above button.

A web browser having the following items (a) to (c). I. Two buttons that display “business” and “outside business” and are pressed exclusively; A function that can use different proxies depending on the pressed state of the button, A function to inquire the user that the browser is used outside of the business when the "Out of business" button is selected and pressed.

A web browser having the following items (a) to (c). I. Two buttons that display “business” and “outside business” and are pressed exclusively; A function that can use different proxies depending on the pressed state of the button, Function to inquire the user to use the browser for business when the "business" button is selected and pressed.

A web browser provided with the following items (1) to (2). I. Two buttons that display “business” and “outside business” and are pressed exclusively; A function that can use different proxies depending on the pressed state of the button, 1. When selecting and pressing the "Out of Business" button, a function to inquire the user to use the browser outside of business, and Function to inquire the user to use the browser for business when the "business" button is selected and pressed.

The function further includes a function of changing the contents displayed on the two buttons in addition to “business” and “non-business”.
eb browser.

A web browser having the following items (1) to (2). I. Three or more buttons exclusively pressed; b. A function that can set the content displayed on each button, and c. A function that can use different proxies depending on the pressed state of the button, d. If you select and press one of the buttons, use the browser for the purpose of using the content displayed on the button,
Function to ask the user.

[0028]

As described above, the information acquisition apparatus according to the present invention can acquire, for example, the selection information of “business / non-business” from the user and change the proxy server to be used according to the selection information. did. For this reason, it is possible to appropriately install a proxy server and construct a network according to the purpose of use, and to improve the throughput in a corporate network and effectively use a web browser.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a network configuration including an information acquisition device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a module configuration of an information acquisition device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a screen display example displayed on a browser.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the information acquisition device according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the information acquisition device according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the information acquisition device according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a system configuration of a conventional technique. .

[Explanation of symbols]

1 information acquisition device, 2 information providing server, 3 proxy server, 4 wide area network, 5 business button, 6
Non-business button, 7 URL input box, 11 selection information acquisition unit, 12 proxy server address recording unit, 13
Proxy server selector, 14 selected address recorder, 1
5 URL acquisition unit, 16 information provision request creation unit, 17
Transmitter / receiver.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) G06F 17/30 110 G06F 17/30 110C

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An information acquisition apparatus for acquiring information by making an information provision request to an information provision apparatus that provides information, wherein the information acquisition apparatus requests the information provision apparatus to provide the information. An information acquisition device that selects a specific relay device from a plurality of relay devices that relays information and requests information provision to the information providing device via the selected specific relay device; A selection information acquisition unit that acquires selection information that is information serving as a reference for selecting a relay device; a relay device identification information recording unit that records relay device identification information that is information for identifying the relay device; Based on the selection information acquired by the selection information acquisition unit, select a specific relay device from the plurality of relay devices, from the relay device identification information recording unit the specific relay device A relay device selection unit that obtains the relay device identification information, an information providing device identification information obtaining unit that obtains information providing device identification information that is information for identifying the information providing device, and a relay device selection unit that obtains the information. An information providing request creating unit that creates an information providing request including the relay device identifying information and the information providing device identifying information acquired by the information providing device identifying information acquiring unit; A transmission unit for transmitting the information provision request to the relay device identified by the relay device identification information included in the information provision request. 2. An information acquisition method for acquiring information by making an information provision request to an information provision device that provides information, wherein the information provision request to the information provision device by the information acquisition method is provided. An information acquisition method of selecting a specific relay device from a plurality of relay devices that relays information, and making a request to provide information to the information providing device via the selected specific relay device, comprising: A selection information acquisition step of acquiring selection information that is information serving as a reference for selecting a relay device; a relay device identification information recording step of recording relay device identification information that is information for identifying the relay device; Selecting a specific relay device from the plurality of relay devices based on the selection information obtained in the selection information obtaining step; A relay device selecting step of obtaining relay device identification information indicating the specific relay device from the information processing device; an information providing device identification information obtaining step of obtaining information providing device identification information that is information for identifying the information providing device; An information provision request creation step of creating an information provision request including the relay device identification information acquired by the device selection step and the information provision device identification information acquired by the information provision device identification information acquisition step; Transmitting the information provision request to the relay device identified by the relay device identification information included in the information provision request created in the provision request creation step. 3. An information acquisition method for acquiring information by making an information provision request to an information provision device that provides information, wherein the information provision request to the information provision device by the information acquisition method is provided. A program for causing a computer to execute an information acquisition method of selecting a specific relay device from a plurality of relay devices that relays information, and making a request to provide information to the information providing device via the selected specific relay device. In a recorded computer-readable medium, a selection information acquisition step of acquiring selection information that is information serving as a reference for selecting the specific relay device from the plurality of relay devices, and information for identifying the relay device. A relay device identification information recording step of recording certain relay device identification information; and A relay device selecting step of selecting a specific relay device from the plurality of relay devices and acquiring relay device identification information indicating the specific relay device from the relay device identification information recording step; and identifying the information providing device. An information providing device identification information acquiring step of acquiring information providing device identification information that is information to be performed, the relay device identification information acquired by the relay device selecting step, and the information acquisition device identification information acquired by the information providing device identification information acquiring step. An information providing request creating step of creating an information providing request including information providing apparatus identification information; and a relay device identified by the relay apparatus identifying information included in the information providing request created by the information providing request creating step. A transmitting step of transmitting the information providing request. A computer-readable medium storing a program to be executed by a computer.