I need to create a filename from the users IP# (using $ipaddress = $ENV{REMOTE_ADDR};). I have managed to capture the IP# (i.e 127.0.0.1) and change it to a proper filename (i.e. 127001) using $ipaddress =~ s/\.//g;, but I want to make it an "absolute" IP# (127000000001). I know you have to search for the first ".", count the number of intergers, and add the proper number of 0's to make three, then repeat the process, but I can't come up with a way of doing that. Any quick ideas?

Just for a little background, I want to do this so that I can log the number of login attempts to a page. I want to limit the number of attempts to 3, so I will create the file with the number of attempts incrementing 1 each time a login fails. If the number of login attempts exceeds 3, I will block the person from trying again for a specific amount of time.

Thanks!