Tag Archives: rbl

Mr. DNS: Free DNS and Network Diagnostic Tools for Sysadmins and Email Teams

Mr. DNS is a free collection of DNS and network diagnostic tools built for sysadmins, email administrators, and infrastructure teams. The site has been around for years, went offline for a while, and recently relaunched with an expanded tool set. Everything runs in the browser with no account required. If you work with DNS records, mail servers, or IP reputation, there is something here you will use regularly.

Mr. DNS homepage showing DNS and network diagnostic tools

DNS Tools

The DNS lookup tool handles all common record types: A, AAAA, MX, TXT, NS, SOA, CNAME, PTR, CAA, SRV, TLSA, HTTPS, MTA-STS, and BIMI. Results include TTL, geolocation data for nameservers, and flag icons for quick visual scanning.

The DNS propagation checker queries seven global resolvers simultaneously: Cloudflare, Google, Quad9, OpenDNS, AdGuard, NextDNS, and DNS.SB. Useful when you have just made a DNS change and need to see where it has landed without waiting or querying each resolver manually.

The DNSSEC checker validates the full chain of trust: DS records, DNSKEY records, RRSIG presence, and expiry. Good for confirming a DNSSEC deployment before and after changes.

Email Tools

The email tools are where Mr. DNS gets most of its daily use. The email health checker runs a combined SPF and DMARC evaluation and returns a letter grade (A through F) for your domain. One URL, one result, easy to share with a client or manager who needs a status report.

Mr. DNS email health checker showing an A grade for generatorlabs.com

Individual checkers are also available for SPF, DMARC, and DKIM when you need to dig into a specific record. The email header analyzer parses raw RFC 2822 headers and maps the full relay chain with per-hop timing and authentication results, useful for tracing a delivery failure or diagnosing a spam classification issue.

For teams managing outbound mail infrastructure, the MTA-STS checker validates DNS records and policy files, and the BIMI checker verifies SVG logos and VMC certificates for domains using brand indicators in supported mail clients.

Blacklist Checker

The blacklist checker queries your IP or domain against 15+ major RBLs and returns results in seconds. It is a solid first step when a client reports deliverability problems or when you are onboarding a new IP range and want a quick baseline.

For teams that need ongoing coverage rather than one-off checks, blacklist monitoring from Generator Labs runs continuous checks against hundreds of data sources and sends immediate alerts when a listing is detected. The free tier covers one host with no credit card required.

SSL and Network Tools

The SSL certificate checker inspects certificate details, expiry dates, SANs, issuer chain, and key type for any domain. Useful for a quick manual check before or after a certificate renewal.

For automated tracking across many domains, certificate monitoring from Generator Labs handles the ongoing work: scheduled checks, configurable expiry alert thresholds, and multi-channel notifications before anything expires.

Other network tools include ping, traceroute, port checker, HTTP headers inspector, HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 checker, and a what is my IP tool that detects both IPv4 and IPv6 with geolocation and ASN data.

Generators

Mr. DNS includes generators for SPF records and DMARC records for teams setting up email authentication from scratch. Both walk through the options and output a ready-to-paste DNS record.

Bottom Line

Mr. DNS covers the diagnostic side of DNS and email infrastructure without requiring an account or payment. For the monitoring side, Generator Labs provides continuous blacklist monitoring and certificate monitoring with alerting, picking up where the one-shot tools leave off. Both are worth bookmarking if you manage any kind of mail or DNS infrastructure.

Generator Labs: Blacklist and Certificate Monitoring for Email and Infrastructure Teams

Generator Labs provides infrastructure monitoring for teams that need to stay ahead of two specific problems: IP and domain blacklistings that kill email deliverability, and SSL certificates that expire without warning. Both products run in the same portal, so you manage everything in one place.

Blacklist Monitoring

Blacklist monitoring runs continuous checks of your IPv4 addresses, IPv6 addresses, and domains against hundreds of RBL and URIBL data sources. The moment a listing is detected, alerts go out through whatever channels you have configured: email, SMS, Slack, Discord, PagerDuty, or webhooks.

Coverage is the differentiator. Free one-shot tools check a handful of the major lists. Generator Labs checks well over a hundred data sources on a schedule, including 30+ premium sources on Enterprise and Ultimate plans that free tools do not cover. You get notified when something changes; you are not logging in to run a manual check.

Other features worth knowing:

Full IPv6 support. IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are both monitored across all plans. As more mail infrastructure goes dual-stack, IPv6 blacklisting is a real and growing issue that most monitoring tools still treat as secondary.

Shareable public reports. Every monitored host gets a public report URL you can hand to a client, ISP, or manager without giving anyone portal access.

REST API. Full programmatic access to monitoring data and controls, with client libraries for PHP, Node.js, and Python.

Generator Labs RBL Monitoring hosts list

Blacklist Monitoring Pricing

  • Free: 1 host, 48-hour check interval, 100+ data sources. Free forever, no credit card required.
  • Professional: $8/month for 20 hosts at 24-hour intervals.
  • Enterprise: $16/month for 50 hosts at 12-hour intervals, premium data sources, custom run times.
  • Ultimate: $0.005 per check, unlimited hosts, custom intervals, all premium sources.

The Ultimate pay-per-check plan scales cleanly for larger deployments. Running 50 hosts daily against 150 data sources works out to roughly $11/month.

Certificate Monitoring

Certificate monitoring tracks SSL/TLS certificate expirations across your domains and sends alerts before anything expires. Add your domains, set alert thresholds, and the service runs automatically from there.

Both publicly-trusted and private or internal CA certificates are supported, which matters for teams running internal infrastructure that does not go through a public CA. Certificate expiry causes outages that are entirely preventable; automated monitoring removes the spreadsheet tracking and calendar reminders that most teams fall back on.

Generator Labs Certificate Monitoring monitors list

Monitoring profiles let you define reusable alert configurations across multiple monitors. Set custom expiration alert windows (5, 15, 30, 60 days, or any combination you need), choose which failure types trigger alerts, and assign private CAs or internal monitoring agents. One profile can cover dozens of monitors.

Generator Labs Certificate Monitoring add profile dialog

Certificate Monitoring Pricing

Certificate monitoring is priced at $0.01 per host per day, with no fixed tiers. You pay for what you monitor and can add or remove domains at any time.

Who It Is For

  • Email service providers and hosting companies monitoring large IP ranges
  • IT and security teams who need immediate notification when a host gets listed
  • Organizations managing many domains who need certificate expiry visibility without manual tracking
  • Developers who want API access to monitoring data for automation or integration

Get Started

Generator Labs offers continuous blacklist monitoring and certificate monitoring with solid alert coverage and a complete API. The free tier is a real free tier. Sign up at portal.generatorlabs.com to get started, no credit card required.

Generator Labs: Custom Check Frequency, API Changes, and Twitter Support

The Generator Labs service was upgraded to version 1.12 today, which includes the following new features:

Custom Check Frequency

Customers subscribed to the Ultimate package can now adjust the frequency of their host checks, using a simple drop-down list from the Profile -> Settings section:

 

At the moment, customers can select from a 6 hour window, to a 48 hour window. Finer grained controls will likely be added in future releases.

API Updates

We’ve made some very basic changes to the API service:

  • Replaced all instances of the term “blocked” with “listed”. The “blocked” terminology is still available, but customers should migrate to the new terminology as soon as possible, as it will be deprecated in future releases.
  • The matched RBLs have been added to the response data. This includes the RBL matched, the RBL website, and the RBL output from DNS.
  • The API version number is now included in the response object.

An updated API document is available from the API Access section of the Generator Labs portal.

Twitter Notifications

Customers can now add their Twitter screen name to their account as notification contacts. Generator Labs will send a direct message to your Twitter account anytime a host matches (or based on your scheduling settings:

 

Customers must follow the @generator_labs Twitter account with the same Twitter handle in order to received direct messages. We also cannot send URLs in direct messages, due to limitations on the Twitter platform- hopefully this is something they will correct in the future.

If you have any questions or comments about any of these new features, please let us know @ info@generatorlabs.com

Generator Labs: New Flexible Pay-Per-Check Pricing Model

The Generator Labs system is an automated service that scans over 60 RBL’s, 20 URIBL’s, and the Google Safe Browsing database, to see if any of your IP addresses and website URL’s are currently blocked.

As of Sept 1st,, Generator Labs is offering a pay-per-check pricing model through its new Ultimate package. This new package lets you add as many hosts to your account as you like, and rather than paying for a certain number of hosts, you pay a low, scaled price per-check.

How does this work?

Per-Check pricing means that you can monitor an unlimited number of hosts, by simply adding credits on your account towards checks. When the credit on your account runs out, the checks stop- it’s that simple.

The cost-per-check scales with the number of hosts on your account. The current per-check pricing sheet is as follows:

  • Between 0 and 199 hosts, the cost-per-check is $0.0050/check
  • Between 200 and 499 hosts, the cost-per-check is $0.0048/check
  • Between 500 and 999 hosts, the cost-per-check is $0.0045/check
  • 1000 hosts and up, the cost-per-check is $0.0040/check

Put as much or as little credit on your account as you like- it will never expire, and we’ll let you know when your credit is running out.

How many hosts can I really add?

Really, you can add as many as you’d like! We’ve already had a customer that added over 6000 hosts to their account!

What else comes with the Ultimate package?

The Ultimate package includes all the same features of our Enterprise package, which includes multiple checks per day, SMS notifications, and much more. See the pricing page for all the package details.

Click here to sign up for free and get started today!

Generator Labs: Automated, Real-Time Black List (RBL) Tracking

Generator Labs is a new project I’ve been working on- an automated, real-time black list (RBL) tracking service.

RBL and URIBL Monitoring

The Generator Labs system automatically scans over 60 RBLs,  and 20 URIBLs, multiple times per day, to see if any of your IP addresses or website domains are listed, giving you the peace of mind you need to focus on your business.

The list of RBLs that Generator Labs monitors will always be kept up to date with the most current list.

Hosts

Generator Labs is a fully automated monitoring service, which checks your IP addresses and website domains against the most frequently used real-time black lists (RBLs) and Safe Browsing Databases.

 

Contacts

Get alerted immediately when one of your hosts is found on an RBL, URIBL, or in a Safe Browsing database.

Your Generator Labs account can be configured with multiple email addresses and phone numbers, for receiving alerts about your hosts. Each contact can be individually configured with different notification rules, to control how each contact receives alerts when one of your hosts is blocked.

Google Safe Browsing

The Google Safe Browsing database includes lists of website domains that may be dangerous to visitors, because they are suspected of phishing or malware.

Generator Labs will check your websites against the Google Safe Browsing database, and alert you immediately if any errors are found, ensuring that your visitors can reach your websites.

API Access

Generator Labs includes a simple, read-only, REST based API, that lets you poll our database for the current status of your hosts.

The Generator Labs API can easily be integrated into existing monitoring systems, like Nagios or Zabbix, by performing a simple HTTP GET request for the list of currently blocked hosts. The response data can be returned either as simple XML, or as a JSON object.

<?php
    echo file_get_contents('https://generatorlabs.com/api/blocks.json?api_token=123');
?>

{
    "status_code": 200,
    "status_message": "Ok",
    "total_blocks": 1,
    "data": [
        {
            "id": "5afd618836c251cbb066803f25b87fa1",
            "host": "192.168.1.1",
            "name": "Primary Mail Server",
            "status": "active",
            "last_checked": "2012-12-30 21:00:07 EST",
            "first_blocked": "2012-12-17 11:05:03 EST",
            "block_period": "13 days 13:35:58",
            "blocked": "1"
        }
    ]
}

Don’t let your customers be the first to know when your email systems or websites get blocked.

Signup for FREE today!