Residential Proxies: How Do They Work?


Proxies are very much like bridges between you and the internet. What exactly you want to do with your proxies should determine your choice. - Article authored by Kunal Chowdhury on .

If you are generally interested in finding smart solutions to complex problems, especially when it comes to overcoming barriers on the web, you’re most likely to have heard about residential proxies. The demand has been surging recently, causing new proxy sellers to emerge.

 

However, you’ll need to find the best residential proxies for your purpose to actually benefit from them. How do you pick a set that’s worth it?

 

Residential Proxies: How Do They Work?

 

Stick around to find out the following:

  • how proxies can be useful to you;
  • why residential proxies are better than datacenter ones and in what circumstances it matters;
  • where to get reliable residential proxies;
  • when to use them.

 

 

How Proxies Work

For those new to the subject, proxies are very much like bridges between you and the internet. Their primary function is to receive and forward your requests so that the IP address associated with those is changed before they hit the target resource.

 

This is beneficial in situations where repeated requests from the same IP can be perceived as suspicious. A common example is web scraping, where you automate the collection of data you’d otherwise need to pick manually across websites. It’s not uncommon for scrapers to get blocked or blacklisted based on their IP.

 

Since every IP address has a location, changing yours can be helpful in terms of overcoming geographical limitations. Common cases include accessing geo-restricted content on YouTube and other websites. It’s a solution popular with students and people working in organizations that block certain resources within their networks.

 

What exactly you want to do with your proxies should determine your choice. Read below to learn which type to pick for which purpose.

 

 

Residential vs. Datacenter Proxies

All proxies can be roughly divided into datacenter and residential. The former are generally more affordable but less effective since they are generated in bulk and show common parameters, which makes them easily detectable. Their location is limited to the data center they were created by, which is not always what customers look for.

 

Conversely, residential proxies are real residential IPs that come from a wide range of locations. You can use a rotating set to switch from IP to IP and enjoy full anonymity this way. It’s also a scheme that’s hard to detect, so you don’t need to fear when going on a scraping mission with a set of residential proxies.

 

 

Top 3 Uses for Residential Proxies

Residential proxies can be more expensive than datacenter-generated ones, but they offer a broader range of capabilities, too. Here’s what you can do with a package:

  • verify ads via affiliate link testing, i.e., checking whether your ads are displayed in the right contexts;
  • engage in large-scale web scraping or crawling to gather helpful data;
  • check website ranking depending on location for SEO purposes.

 

Explore the Web Freely

Residential proxies have numerous uses, and the list is far from exhaustive. Be sure to check if residential proxies can solve your problem. A set of geographically diverse proxies is definitely worth an investment.

 

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