NAME

Net::RBLClient - Queries multiple Realtime Blackhole Lists in parallel

SYNOPSIS

use Net::RBLClient;
my $rbl = Net::RBLClient->new;
$rbl->lookup('211.101.236.160');
my @listed_by = $rbl->listed_by;

DESCRIPTION

This module is used to discover what RBL's are listing a particular IP address. It parallelizes requests for fast response.

An RBL, or Realtime Blackhole List, is a list of IP addresses meeting some criteria such as involvement in Unsolicited Bulk Email. Each RBL has its own criteria for addition and removal of addresses. If you want to block email or other traffic to/from your network based on one or more RBL's, you should carefully study the behavior of those RBL's before and during such blocking.

CONSTRUCTOR

new( [ARGS] )

Takes an optional hash of arguments:

lists

An arraref of (sub)domains representing RBLs. In other words, each element in the array is a string similar to 'relays.somerbl.org'. Use this if you want to query a specific list of RBL's - if this argument is omitted, a large list of RBL's is queried.

query_txt

Set this to true if you want Net::RBLClient to also query for TXT records, in which many RBL's store additional information about the reason for including an IP address or links to pages that contain such information. You can then retrieve these information using the "txt_hash()" method.

max_time

The maximum time in seconds that the lookup function should take. In fact, the function can take up to max_time + timeout seconds. Max_time need not be integer. Of course, if the lookup returns due to max_time, some DNS replies will be missed.

Default: 8 seconds.

timeout

The maximum time in seconds spent awaiting each DNS reply packet. The only reason to change this is if max_time is decreased to a small value.

Default: 1 second.

max_hits

A hit is an affirmative response, stating that the IP address is on a certain list. If max_hits hits are received, lookup() returns immediately. This lets the calling program save time.

Default: 1000 (effectively out of the picture).

max_replies

A reply from an RBL could be affirmative or negative. Either way, it counts towards max_replies. Lookup() returns when max_replies replies have been received.

udp_maxlen

The maximum number of bytes read from a DNS reply packet. There's probably no reason to change this.

Default: 4000

server

The local nameserver to use for all queries. Should be either a resolvable hostname or a dotted quad IP address.

By default, the first nameserver in /etc/resolv.conf will be used.

METHODS

lookup( IPADDR )

Lookup one IP address on all RBL's previously defined. The IP address must be expressed in dotted quad notation, like '1.2.3.4'. Lookup() returns 1.

listed_by()

Return an array of RBL's which block the specified IP. The RBL's are indicated via the (sub)domain used for DNS query. The calling program must first call lookup().

listed_hash()

Return a hash whose keys are the RBL's which block the specified IP, represented as in listed_by(). If the RBL returned an A record, the value for that key will be the IP address in the A record - typically 127.0.0.1 - 127.0.0.4. If the RBL returned a CNAME, the value will be the hostname, typically used for a comment on why the IP address is listed.

txt_hash()

Return a hash (or a reference to that hash if called in a scalar context) whose keys are the RBL's which block the specified IP, represented as in listed_by(). If the RBL returned TXT records containing additional information, the value will contain this information (several TXT records from one RBL will be joined by semicolons, but this should not happen), if not, it will be undef.

AUTHOR

Asher Blum <asher@wildspark.com>

CREDITS

Martin H. Sluka <martin@sluka.de>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2002 Asher Blum. All rights reserved. This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.