Disclosed herein are enhancements for operating a web application firewall to reduce load. In one implementation, a method of operating a content server for a web application comprising running a web accelerator with a plurality of threads on the content server. The method further provides receiving a request for content which will be provided to a web application, filtering the request and determining that the content will be requested from a second server. After determining that the content will be requested from a second server, reviewing the request with a web application firewall operating at a network layer 7, forwarding the request, receiving the content, and providing the content. Further, the web application firewall is controlled by a plurality of sets of rules, which can be updated without restarting the web accelerator.