<%NUMBERING1%>.<%NUMBERING2%>.<%NUMBERING3%> PRTG Manual: IP on DNS Blacklist Sensor

The IP on DNS Blacklist sensor checks if the IP address of its parent device is listed on specific blacklist servers.

IP on DNS Blacklist Sensor

IP on DNS Blacklist Sensor

i_square_cyanFor a detailed list and descriptions of the channels that this sensor can show, see section Channel List.

Sensor in Other Languages

  • Dutch: IP op DNS Blacklist
  • French: IP sur liste noire du DNS
  • German: IP auf Schwarzer Liste des DNS
  • Japanese: DNS ブラックリスト記載の IP
  • Portuguese: IP em Blacklist DNS
  • Russian: Черный список IP-адресов на DNS
  • Simplified Chinese: DNS 黑名单 IP
  • Spanish: IP en lista negra de DNS

Remarks

  • This sensor has a high performance impact. Use it with care. We recommend that you use no more than 200 sensors of this sensor type on each probe.
  • This sensor requires .NET 4.7.2 or later from Microsoft on the probe system. If the sensor shows the error PE087, additionally install .NET 3.5 on the probe system.
  • We recommend Windows Server 2012 R2 on the probe system for best performance of this sensor.
  • This sensor supports the IPv6 protocol.
  • If a Domain Name System (DNS) name is used as the host name of the parent device, PRTG resolves it to an IP address before querying blacklist servers.
  • During normal operation, there should be 0 hits and the sensor should show the Up status. If the sensor can find the IP address on at least one of the blacklist servers, it shows the Warning status by default. You can set additional thresholds in the channel settings.
  • See the Knowledge Base: Is there a list of anti spam black list servers?

Detailed Requirements

Requirement

Description

.NET 4.7.2 or later

This sensor requires .NET 4.7.2 or later to be installed on the probe system (on every cluster node, if on a cluster probe).

i_round_redIf the framework is missing, you cannot create this sensor.

i_square_cyanFor more information, see the Knowledge Base: Which .NET version does PRTG require?

Add Sensor

The Add Sensor dialog appears when you manually add a new sensor to a device. It only shows the settings that are required to create the sensor. You can change nearly all settings on the sensor's Settings tab after creation.

Basic Sensor Settings

Click the Settings tab of a sensor to change its settings.

Basic Sensor Settings

Basic Sensor Settings

Setting

Description

Sensor Name

Enter a name to identify the sensor.

Parent Tags

Shows tags that the sensor inherits from its parent device, parent group, and parent probe.

i_round_blueThis setting is for your information only. You cannot change it.

Tags

Enter one or more tags. Confirm each tag with the Spacebar key, a comma, or the Enter key. You can use tags to group objects and use tag-filtered views later on. Tags are not case-sensitive. Tags are automatically inherited.

i_round_blueIt is not possible to enter tags with a leading plus (+) or minus (-) sign, nor tags with parentheses (()) or angle brackets (<>).

i_round_blueFor performance reasons, it can take some minutes until you can filter for new tags that you added.

The sensor has the following default tags that are automatically predefined in the sensor's settings when you add the sensor:

  • ptfsensor

Priority

Select a priority for the sensor. This setting determines the position of the sensor in lists. The highest priority is at the top of a list. Choose from the lowest priority (i_priority_1) to the highest priority (i_priority_5).

Sensor Settings

Sensor Settings

Sensor Settings

Setting

Description

Blacklist Servers

Define the blacklist servers that the sensor uses for the check. You can enter a comma-separated list. The default is bl.spamcop.net.

i_square_cyanFor a list of servers, see the Knowledge Base: Is there a list of anti spam black list servers?

i_round_redWith each scanning interval, PRTG queries all servers in the list. We recommend that you do not enter more than 10 servers to make sure that the check can be completed within the scanning interval of this sensor. If you use too many blacklist servers, the sensor shows the error message Timeout (code: PE018).

Debug Options

Debug Options

Debug Options

Setting

Description

Result Handling

Define what PRTG does with the sensor result:

  • Discard result: Do not store the sensor result.
  • Store result: Store the last sensor result in the \Logs\sensors subfolder of the PRTG data directory on the probe system. The file names are Result of Sensor [ID].txt and Result of Sensor [ID].Data.txt. This setting is for debugging purposes. PRTG overwrites these files with each scanning interval.

i_podThis option is not available when the sensor runs on the hosted probe of a PRTG Hosted Monitor instance.

i_round_blueIn a cluster, PRTG stores the result in the PRTG data directory of the master node.

Sensor Display

Sensor Display

Sensor Display

Setting

Description

Primary Channel

Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, the last value of the primary channel is always displayed below the sensor's name. The available options depend on what channels are available for this sensor.

i_round_blueYou can set a different primary channel later by clicking b_channel_primary below a channel gauge on the sensor's Overview tab.

Graph Type

Define how different channels are shown for this sensor:

  • Show channels independently (default): Show a graph for each channel.
  • Stack channels on top of each other: Stack channels on top of each other to create a multi-channel graph. This generates a graph that visualizes the different components of your total traffic.
    i_round_redYou cannot use this option in combination with manual Vertical Axis Scaling (available in the channel settings).

Stack Unit

This setting is only visible if you enable Stack channels on top of each other as Graph Type. Select a unit from the list. All channels with this unit are stacked on top of each other. By default, you cannot exclude single channels from stacking if they use the selected unit. However, there is an advanced procedure to do so.

Inherited Settings

By default, all of these settings are inherited from objects that are higher in the hierarchy. We recommend that you change them centrally in the root group settings if necessary. To change a setting for this object only, click b_inherited_enabled under the corresponding setting name to disable the inheritance and to display its options.

i_square_cyanFor more information, see section Inheritance of Settings.

Scanning Interval

Scanning Interval

Scanning Interval

i_square_cyanFor more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Scanning Interval.

Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window

i_round_blueYou cannot interrupt the inheritance for schedules, dependencies, and maintenance windows. The corresponding settings from the parent objects are always active. However, you can define additional schedules, dependencies, and maintenance windows. They are active at the same time as the parent objects' settings.

Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window

Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window

i_square_cyanFor more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window.

Access Rights

Access Rights

Access Rights

i_square_cyanFor more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Access Rights.

Channel List

i_round_blueWhich channels the sensor actually shows might depend on the target device, the available components, and the sensor setup.

Channel

Description

Downtime

In the channel table on the Overview tab, this channel never shows any values. PRTG uses this channel in graphs and reports to show the amount of time in which the sensor was in the Down status in percent.

Execution Time

The execution time in milliseconds (msec)

Sum

The number of blacklist hits found

i_round_blueThis channel is the primary channel by default.

More

i_square_blueKnowledge Base

Is there a list of anti spam black list servers?

Which .NET version does PRTG require?

What security features does PRTG include?

For which sensor types do you recommend at least Windows Server 2012 R2 and why?