PRTG Manual: IP on DNS Blacklist Sensor

Performance impact

This sensor has a high performance impact. We recommend that you use no more than 200 of this sensor on each probe.

.NET 4.7.2 or later

This sensor requires .NET 4.7.2 or later from Microsoft on the probe system. In a cluster, install it on every cluster node. If the sensor shows the error PE087, additionally install .NET 3.5 on the probe system.

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

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

Windows Server

We recommend Windows Server 2016 on the probe system for best performance of this sensor.

IPv6

This sensor supports IPv6.

Parent device

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.

Additional thresholds

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.

Knowledge Base

Knowledge Base: Is there a list of anti spam black list servers?

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.

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

With 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).

Result Handling

Define what PRTG does with the sensor result:

• Discard result (default): 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.

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

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

Primary Channel

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

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

Graph Type

Define how this sensor shows different channels:

• 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.
  You 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 select Stack channels on top of each other above.

Select a unit from the list. PRTG stacks all channels with this unit 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.

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

Execution Time

The execution time

Sum

The number of blacklist hits found

This channel is the primary channel by default.