Author: claimsbot

1. A method for managing e-mails, said e-mails being received at a firewall or router en route to a mail server, said method comprising the computer implemented steps of:
determining a first score indicating an extent to which contents of a first e-mail sent by a first source exhibit characteristics of spam, and in response to said first score exceeding a lower threshold but not exceeding an upper threshold, said firewall or router limiting a rate at which said firewall or router forwards subsequent e-mails from said first source to said mail server, the rate limit being predetermined, greater than zero and less than a maximum rate at which said firewall or router is able to forward said subsequent e-mails from said first source to said mail server absent said rate limit;
determining a second score indicating an extent to which contents of a second email sent by a second source exhibit characteristics of spam, and in response to said second score exceeding said upper threshold, said firewall or router not forwarding to said mail server subsequent e-mails from said second source destined for said mail server; and
determining a third score indicating an extent to which contents of a third e-mail sent by a third source exhibit characteristics of spam, and in response to said third score being less than said lower threshold, said firewall or router forwarding subsequent e-mails from said third source to said mail server without blocking or rate-limiting said subsequent e-mails from said third source based on said contents of said third e-mail.
2. A method as set forth in claim 1 wherein scores below said lower threshold indicate that corresponding e-mails are probably not spam, scores above said upper threshold indicate that corresponding e-mails are probably spam, and scores between said lower and upper thresholds indicate that corresponding e-mails have an intermediate likelihood of being spam.
3. A method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said rate limit is a limit on a number of e-mails per unit of time from said first source that will be forwarded from said firewall or router to said mail server.
4. A method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said rate limit is in effect for a predetermined period, and then discontinued such that subsequent e-mails from said first source are not rate-limited based on said contents of said first e-mail.
5. A method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said characteristics of spam include three or more of the following characteristics:
key words characteristic of spam, whether the e-mail is HTML type, whether text in the e-mail omits a first or last name of an intended recipient, whether a subject line of the e-mail is blank or includes words characteristic of marketing, whether an identity listed in a \u201cfrom\u201d field matches a location of a source IP address, whether the e-mail includes colors, whether the e-mail has some text in larger fonts than ordinarily used for noncommercial e-mail, whether multiple e-mails with similar content are addressed to multiple different recipients and originate from a same source IP address, and whether the text is similar or identical to other e-mails from a same source.
6. A system for managing e-mails, said e-mails being received at a firewall or router en route to a mail server, said system comprising:
means for determining a first score indicating an extent to which contents of a first e-mail sent by a first source exhibit characteristics of spam, and in response to said first score exceeding a lower threshold but not exceeding an upper threshold,
limiting a rate at which said firewall or router forwards said subsequent e-mails from said first source to said mail server, the rate limit being predetermined, greater than zero and less than a maximum rate at which said firewall or router is able to forward e-mails from said first source to said mail server absent said rate limit;
means for determining a second score indicating an extent to which contents of a second e-mail sent by a second source exhibit characteristics of spam, and in response to said second score exceeding said upper threshold, causing said firewall or router to block from said mail server subsequent e-mails from said second source destined for said mail server; and
means for determining a third score indicating an extent to which contents of a third e-mail sent by a third source exhibit characteristics of spam, and in response to said third score being less than said lower threshold, allowing said firewall or router to forward subsequent e-mails from said third source to said mail server without blocking or rate-limiting said subsequent e-mails from said third source based on said contents of said third e-mail.
7. A system as set forth in claim 6 wherein scores below said lower threshold indicate that corresponding e-mails are probably not spam, scores above said upper threshold indicate that corresponding e-mails are probably spam, and scores between said lower and upper thresholds indicate that corresponding e-mails have an intermediate likelihood of being spam.
8. A system as set forth in claim 5 wherein said rate limit is a limit on a number of e-mails per unit of time from said first source that will be forwarded from said firewall or router to said mail server.
9. A system as set forth in claim 6 wherein said rate limit is in effect for a predetermined period, and then discontinued such that subsequent e-mails from said first source are not rate-limited based on said contents of said first e-mail.
10. A system as set forth in claim 6 wherein said characteristics of spam include three or more of the following characteristics:
key words characteristic of spam, whether the e-mail is HTML type, whether text in the e-mail omits a first or last name of an intended recipient, whether a subject line of the e-mail is blank or includes words characteristic of marketing, whether an identity listed in a \u201cfrom\u201d field matches a location of a source IP address, whether the e-mail includes colors, whether the e-mail has some text in larger fonts than ordinarily used for noncommercial e-mail, whether multiple e-mails with similar content are addressed to multiple different recipients and originate from a same source IP address, and whether the text is similar to or identical with other e-mails from a same source.
11. A computer program product for managing e-mails, said e-mails being received at a firewall or router en route to a mail server, said computer program product comprising:
one or more computer readable storage media;
first program instructions to determine a first score indicating an extent to which contents of a first e-mail sent by a first source exhibit characteristics of spam, and in response to said first score exceeding a lower threshold but not exceeding an upper threshold, limit a rate at which said firewall or router forwards subsequent e-mails from said first source to said mail server, the rate limit being predetermined, greater than zero and less than a maximum rate at which said firewall or router is able to forward e-mails from said first source to said mail server absent said rate limit;
second program instructions to determine a second score indicating an extent to which contents of a second e-mail sent by a second source exhibit characteristics of spam, and in response to said second score exceeding said upper threshold, cause said firewall or router to block from said mail server subsequent e-mails from said second source destined for said mail server; and
third program instructions to determine a third score indicating an extent to which contents of a third e-mail sent by a third source exhibit characteristics of spam, and in response to said third score being less than said lower threshold, allow said firewall or router to forward subsequent e-mails from said third source to said mail server without blocking or rate-limiting said subsequent e-mails from said third source based on said contents of said third e-mail, and wherein
said first, second and third program instructions are recorded on said one or more computer readable storage media.
12. A computer program product as set forth in claim 11 wherein scores below said lower threshold indicate that corresponding e-mails are probably not spam, scores above said upper threshold indicate that corresponding e-mails are probably spam, and scores between said lower and upper thresholds indicate that corresponding e-mails have an intermediate likelihood of being spam.
13. A computer program product as set forth in claim 11 wherein said rate limit is a limit on a number of e-mails per unit of time from said first source that will be forwarded from said firewall or router to said mail server.
14. A computer program product as set forth in claim 11 wherein said rate limit is in effect for a predetermined period, and then discontinued such that subsequent e-mails from said first source are not rate-limited based on said contents of said first e-mail.
15. A computer program product as set forth in claim 11 wherein said characteristics of spam include three or more of the following characteristics:
key words characteristic of spam, whether the e-mail is HTML type, whether text in the e-mail omits a first or last name of an intended recipient, whether a subject line of the e-mail is blank or includes words characteristic of marketing, whether an identity listed in a \u201cfrom\u201d field matches a location of a source IP address, whether the e-mail includes colors, whether the e-mail has some text in larger fonts than ordinarily used for noncommercial e-mail, whether multiple e-mails with similar content are addressed to multiple different recipients and originate from a same source IP address, and whether the text is similar to or identical with other e-mails from a same source.

The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.

1. A method for performing domain name resolution using interception caching by an intermediary network device, the method comprising:
identifying, by an intermediary device, a destination internet protocol address of a first request from a client for a uniform resource locator destined to a server;
storing, by the intermediary device, the destination internet protocol address of the first request for the uniform resource locator to use as a domain name server (DNS) resolved internet protocol address for the uniform resource locator;
receiving, by the intermediary device, a second request for the uniform resource locator; and
transmitting, by the intermediary device, the second request to the destination identified by the destination internet protocol address stored by the intermediary device from the first request of the client as the DNS resolved internet protocol address for the uniform resource locator.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, receiving, by the intermediary device, the second request from one of the client or a second client.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the intermediary device, from the client the first request to establish a connection with a server identified by the destination internet protocol address.
4. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing, by the intermediary device, in a cache the destination internet protocol address as the DNS resolved internet protocol address for the uniform resource locator.
5. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating, by the intermediary device, the destination internet protocol address with a host name identified by the uniform resource locator.
6. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting, by the intermediary device, the second request to a server identified by the destination internet protocol address.
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting, by the intermediary device, a DNS request to resolve the destination internet protocol address while using the destination internet protocol address as the DNS resolved internet protocol address for the uniform resource locator.
8. The method of claim 7, further comprising updating, by the intermediary device, the DNS resolved internet protocol address for the uniform resource locator in response to an information from a response to the DNS request to resolve the destination internet protocol address.
9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
generating, by the intermediary device, a DNS request to resolve a domain name into an internet protocol address;
assigning, by the intermediary device, the generated DNS request with a priority for a speculative request;
transmitting, by the intermediary device, the generated DNS request as the speculative request in accordance with the assigned priority;
storing, by the intermediary device, an internet protocol address of the resolved domain name from a response received to the generated DNS request as the destination internet protocol address prior to receiving the first request.
10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
parsing, by the intermediary device, a uniform resource locator of a page;
determining, by the intermediary device, that an internet protocol address of a domain name identified in the uniform resource locator is stored in a cache;
generating, by the intermediary device, a request for an update for the internet protocol address for the domain name; and
updating, by the intermediary device, the internet protocol address of the page as the destination internet protocol address prior to receiving the first request.
11. A system for performing domain name resolution using interception caching by an intermediary network device, the system comprising:
a network engine of an intermediary device identifying a destination internet protocol address of a first request from a client for a uniform resource locator destined to a server;
a cache manager of the intermediary device storing the destination internet protocol address of the first request for the uniform resource locator to use as a domain name server (DNS) resolved internet protocol address for the uniform resource locator;
wherein the cache manager receives a second request for the uniform resource locator and the network engine transmits the second request to a destination identified by the destination internet protocol address stored by the intermediary device from the first request of the client as the DNS resolved internet protocol address for the uniform resource locator.
12. The system of claim 11, wherein the cache manager receives the second request from one of the client or a second client.
13. The system of claim 11, wherein the cache manager receives from the client the first request to establish a connection with a server identified by the destination internet protocol address.
14. The system of claim 11, wherein the cache manager stores in a cache the destination internet protocol address as the DNS resolved internet protocol address for the uniform resource locator.
15. The system of claim 11, wherein the cache manager associates the destination internet protocol address with a host name identified by the uniform resource locator.
16. The system of claim 11, further comprising:
the network engine receiving a DNS request of the client to resolve a host name identified by the uniform resource locator;
the cache manager identifying the destination internet protocol address as a resolved address of the host name and serving the destination internet protocol address as the DNS resolved address in response to one or more DNS request of the client.
17. The system of claim 11, wherein the network engine transmits a DNS request to resolve the destination internet protocol address while using the destination internet protocol address as the DNS resolved internet protocol address for the uniform resource locator.
18. The system of claim 17, wherein the cache manager updates the DNS resolved internet protocol address for the uniform resource locator in response to an information from a response to the DNS request to resolve the destination internet protocol address.
19. The system of claim 11, further comprising:
the network engine generating a DNS request to resolve a domain name into an internet protocol address and transmitting the generated DNS request as a speculative request in accordance with priority for the speculative request assigned to the generated DNS request; and the cache manager storing an internet protocol address of the resolved domain name from a response received to the generated DNS request as the destination internet protocol address prior to receiving the first request.
20. The system of claim 11, further comprising:
the network engine parsing a uniform resource locator of a page;
the cache manager determining that an internet protocol address of a domain name identified in the uniform resource locator is stored in a cache;
the network engine generating a request for an update for the internet protocol address for the domain name; and
the cache manager updating the internet protocol address of the page as the destination internet protocol address prior to receiving the first request.
21. A method for performing domain name resolution using interception caching by an intermediary network device, the method comprising:
identifying, by an intermediary device, a destination internet protocol address of a first request from a client for a uniform resource locator;
storing, by the intermediary device, the destination internet protocol address as a domain name server (DNS) resolved internet protocol address for the uniform resource locator; receiving, by the intermediary device, a second request for the uniform resource locator; and
transmitting, by the intermediary device, the second request to a destination identified by the destination internet protocol address
receiving, by the intermediary device, a DNS request of the client to resolve a host name identified by the uniform resource locator;
identifying, by the intermediary device, the destination internet protocol address as a resolved address of the host name; and
serving, by the intermediary device, the destination internet protocol address as the DNS resolved address in response to one or more DNS request of the client.
22. A system for performing domain name resolution using interception caching by an intermediary network device, the system comprising:
a network engine of an intermediary device identifying a destination internet protocol address of a first request from a client for a uniform resource locator;
a cache manager of the intermediary device storing the destination internet protocol address as a domain name server (DNS) resolved internet protocol address for the uniform resource locator;
wherein the cache manager receives a second request for the uniform resource locator and the network engine transmits the second request to a server identified by the destination internet protocol address.

What is claimed is:

1. An electric power steering apparatus comprising:
a motor drive circuit for PWM-driving an electric motor to generate a steering assist torque corresponding to a steering torque, the motor drive circuit including:
a bridge circuit formed by a plurality of active elements connected together;
a first voltage step up circuit for stepping up a line voltage of the electric power steering apparatus;
a second voltage step-up circuit connected in series with the first voltage for stepping up an output voltage from the first voltage step-up circuit; and
a predrive circuit connected in series with the bridge circuit and the second voltage step-up circuit for driving active elements at a positive potential of the active elements with an output voltage from the second voltage step-up circuit supplied to the predrive circuit.
2. An electric power steering apparatus comprising:
a motor drive circuit for PWM-driving an electric motor to generate a steering assist torque corresponding to a steering torque, the motor drive circuit including:
a bridge circuit formed by a plurality of active elements connected together;
a predrive circuit connected with the bridge circuit for driving active elements at a positive potential of the active elements;
a first power supply for supplying a first voltage to the bridge circuit; and
a second power supply provided separately from the first power supply for exclusive use with the predrive circuit for supplying a second voltage solely to the predrive circuit.
3. An electric power steering apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the motor drive circuit further comprises a voltage step-up circuit disposed between the second power supply and the predrive circuit for stepping up the second voltage from the second power supply before the second voltage is supplied to the predrive circuit.

The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.

What is claimed is:

1. A method of determining a fail string for a device comprising the steps of:
determining a test pattern for a portion of an address space wherein the test pattern includes at least one address in the address space and the portion of the address space includes at least one x address and at least one y addresses;
executing a test a plurality of times for each test pattern, wherein every combination of the test pattern is tested, wherein the combinations include each address held at a first potential for at least a first test and a second potential for at least a second test;
determining a fail string for the device including passfail results for the test pattern; and
combining the passfail results in the fail string.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the portion of the address space to be tested corresponds to a number of addresses comprising each test pattern.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the test pattern includes a single address.
4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the steps of:
holding the test pattern at the first potential during a first test, yielding in a passfail result; and
holding the test pattern at the second potential during a second test, yielding in a passfail result.
5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of executing the test for the test pattern, wherein the test pattern is a combination of at least one address.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining the test pattern further includes the step of determining at least one x address and at least one y address according to a targeted fail type, wherein the targeted fail type is identified using a subset of the addresses in the address space.
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of generating a pseudo compressed bitmap comprising a plurality of cells, wherein each cell is one of a passing cell and a failing cell.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein the failing cell manifests itself as a fail in the passfail results for every test pattern and the passing cell has at least one pass result for at least one test pattern.
9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of generating a pareto.
10. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for generating a pseudo compressed bitmap for a device, the method steps comprising:
determining a test pattern for a portion of an address space wherein the test pattern includes at least one address in the address space and the portion of the address space includes at least one x address and at least one y addresses;
executing a test a plurality of times for each test pattern, wherein every combination of the test pattern is tested, wherein the combinations include each address held at a first potential for at least a first test and a second potential for at least a second test;
determining a fail string for the device including passfail results for the test pattern; and
generating a pseudo compressed bitmap by combining each passfail result according to a Boolean AND function.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein the portion of the address space to be tested corresponds to a number of addresses comprising each test pattern.
12. The method of claim 10, wherein the test pattern includes a single address.
13. The method of claim 12, further comprising the steps of;
holding the test pattern at the first potential during a first test, yielding in a passfail result; and
holding the test pattern at the second potential during a second test, yielding in a passfail result.
14. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of executing the test for the test pattern, wherein the test pattern is a combination of at least one address.
15. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of determining the test pattern further includes the step of determining at least one x address and at least one y address according to a targeted fail type, wherein the targeted fail type is identified using a subset of the addresses in the address space.
16. The method of claim 10, wherein the pseudo compressed bitmap comprises a plurality of cells, wherein each cell is one of a passing cell and a failing cell.
17. The method of claim 16, wherein the failing cell manifests itself as a fail in the passfail results for every test pattern and the passing cell has at least one pass result for at least one test pattern.
18. A method of generating a pseudo compressed bitmap for a device comprising the steps of:
generating a pseudo compressed bitmap by combining a plurality of passfail results according to a Boolean AND function;
displaying the pseudo compressed bitmap wherein the passfail results correspond to at least one X address pin and one Y address pin, and wherein each address pin corresponds to a plurality of passfail results.
19. The method of claim 18, wherein every combination of a test pattern including at least one address is tested, wherein the combinations include each address held at a first potential for at least a first test and a second potential for at least a second test.