NAME

       Smokeping::probes::WebProxyFilter - tests webproxy filter performance and function.

OVERVIEW

       This probe tests if your filtering webproxy is working properly. Drawing from a list of forbidden
       websites, it tries to establish a connection to each one of them and registers a 'loss' when it succeeds.

       If you want to test availability of a website, use the EchoPingHttp probe.

SYNOPSIS

        *** Probes ***

        +WebProxyFilter

        forks = 5
        maxsize = 2000
        min_interval = 0.1
        offset = 50%
        step = 300
        timeout = 15
        useragent = SmokePing/2.x (WebProxyFilter Probe)

        # The following variables can be overridden in each target section
        /^influx_.+/ = influx_location = In the basement
        deny_re = Access Prohibited
        more_hosts = www.playboy.com, www.our-competition.com
        pings = 5
        timeout = 2

        # [...]

        *** Targets ***

        probe = WebProxyFilter # if this should be the default probe

        # [...]

        + mytarget
        # probe = WebProxyFilter # if the default probe is something else
        host = my.host
        /^influx_.+/ = influx_location = In the basement
        deny_re = Access Prohibited
        more_hosts = www.playboy.com, www.our-competition.com
        pings = 5
        timeout = 2

DESCRIPTION

       The probe uses the LWP::UserAgent module to retrieve a series of webpages. It expects to get the
       firewalls 'site-prohibited' page. Any other response (or a real loss) gets logged as a loss and can be
       used to trigger an alarm.

       The probe tries to be nice to the firewall and waits at least X seconds between starting filetransfers,
       where X is the value of the probe specific `min_interval' variable (1 by default).

       Many variables can be specified either in the probe or in the target definition, the target-specific
       variable will override the prove-specific variable.

VARIABLES

       Supported probe-specific variables:

       forks
           Run this many concurrent processes at maximum

           Example value: 5

           Default value: 5

       maxsize
           How much of the webpage should be retrieved.

           Default value: 2000

       min_interval
           The minimum interval between each starting GETs in seconds.

           Example value: 0.1

           Default value: 1

       offset
           If you run many probes concurrently you may want to prevent them from hitting your network all at the
           same time. Using the probe-specific offset parameter you can change the point in time when each probe
           will be run. Offset is specified in % of total interval, or alternatively as 'random', and the offset
           from the 'General' section is used if nothing is specified here. Note that this does NOT influence
           the rrds itself, it is just a matter of when data acquisition is initiated.  (This variable is only
           applicable if the variable 'concurrentprobes' is set in the 'General' section.)

           Example value: 50%

       step
           Duration of the base interval that this probe should use, if different from the one specified in the
           'Database' section. Note that the step in the RRD files is fixed when they are originally generated,
           and if you change the step parameter afterwards, you'll have to delete the old RRD files or somehow
           convert them. (This variable is only applicable if the variable 'concurrentprobes' is set in the
           'General' section.)

           Example value: 300

       timeout
           How long a single 'ping' takes at maximum

           Example value: 15

           Default value: 5

       useragent
           The web browser we claim to be, just in case the FW is interested

           Default value: SmokePing/2.x (WebProxyFilter Probe)

       Supported target-specific variables:

       /^influx_.+/
           This is a tag that will be sent to influxdb and has no impact on the probe measurement. The tag name
           will be sent without the "influx_" prefix, which will be replaced with "tag_" instead. Tags can be
           used for filtering.

           Example value: influx_location = In the basement

       deny_re
           Regular expression, matching the 'deny' response from the firewall

           Example value: Access Prohibited

       more_hosts
           A comma separated list of banned websites to test in addition to the one specified in the host
           variable. The websites will be tested one after the other in one round, this means that while normal
           probes do run the same test several times in a row, this one will alter the webpage with each round.
           The reason for this is, that even though we try to retrieve remote webpages, the answer will come
           from the firewall every time, so we kill two birds in one go. First we test the firewalls latency and
           second we make sure its filter works properly.

           Example value: www.playboy.com, www.our-competition.com

       pings
           How many pings should be sent to each target, if different from the global value specified in the
           Database section. Note that the number of pings in the RRD files is fixed when they are originally
           generated, and if you change this parameter afterwards, you'll have to delete the old RRD files or
           somehow convert them.

           Example value: 5

       timeout
           Timeout in seconds for the test complete.

           Example value: 2

           Default value: 2

AUTHORS

       Tobias Oetiker <tobi@oetiker.ch> sponsored by Virtela

BUGS

       This probe is somewhat unortodox, since it regards the successful retrieval of a banned webpage as a
       loss.