Proxies to bypass IP Bans – Website owners have had to take preventative measures due to the increasing popularity of web scraping and the growing threat of cyberattacks like DDoS, credential stuffing and brute force attacks. They have implemented techniques like rate limiting, CAPTCHA codes and IP bans. These techniques are extremely effective in preventing system resources being used for non-essential functions. This can eventually lead to exhaustion.
They can also hinder operations that are crucial to the success and growth of other businesses. Businesses cannot gather data about the number of products and competitors in the market by stopping web scraping.
When this data is analyzed, it can provide insights into the best time and price points to launch a product, which ultimately leads to success. To overcome IP bans or rate limiting, residential proxy services can be used.
Residential Proxy
A residential proxy is one type of proxy that falls under the proxy-by IP-address category. Before we explain what a residential proxy looks like, let’s first define proxy. Proxy is an intermediary that routes internet traffic through itself to prevent direct communication between the user’s computer (or web browser) and the server. The proxy then sends outgoing web requests and simultaneously sends to the web browser or computer the response from the server.
Sometimes, the intermediary hides the IP address of the user and assigns another IP address. This helps anonymize browsing by erasing any information that could be linked to the user (e.g., location and internet provider (ISP).
If the IP address assigned is associated with a home ISP then it is called a residential proxy. The same applies to a proxy that is associated with a data centre. It is considered a mobile proxy if it assigns mobile IP addresses to mobile service providers.
Apart from assigning IP addresses to home internet providers residential proxies route traffic through actual users’ computers and not data center servers. Datacenter proxies, on the other hand, channel internet traffic through their data centers servers while mobile proxy routes the traffic through mobile devices.
How Residential Proxy Services Prevent IP Bans
By affiliating a website with real users, residential proxies can legitimize a link even if the requests are from bots. Websites that receive requests through this proxy type are often unable to determine if they were sent by bots or human beings.
Even if there are certain characteristics of bot activity the server may not ban the IP address or block it because they don’t know the source of the request. Because residential IP addresses are used primarily by humans, who connect to the internet through their homes ISPs, they are not blocked or banned. Residential proxies can prevent IP bans.
Datacenter IP addresses, which can be used by cloud storage companies to conceal their real IP addresses, are much cheaper and more straightforward to obtain. These addresses are often used by malicious actors to conceal their true IP addresses. Web servers become suspicious of datacenter IPs because they are often linked to bot activity. Datacenter proxy servers are often flagged and blocked faster than residential proxies.
How to use Residential Proxies to Avoid Rate Limiting
Rate limiting is a method of controlling network traffic. This involves either slowing down the requests that reach the server, or blocking access temporarily to protect the server’s performance. Rate limiting is not performed on the web server. It runs in an application programming interface (API).
This practice limits the number of requests that can originate from the same IP address. It typically involves monitoring IP addresses and the interval between requests. Residential proxies, especially ones come in to help.
Rotating residential proxy changes the assigned IP address periodically. It does this to ensure that there are fewer requests per IP address and avoid rate limiting.
The Benefits of Residential Proxy Services for Businesses
Residential proxies can be used to prevent IP bans or bypass rate limits.
- Web scraping
- Anonymous browsing
- Ad verification
- Accessing geo-blocked content
- Review monitoring and brand protection
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which involves using crawlers along with the residential proxy to find SEO issues on a website,
- Management of social media
Conclusion
A vital addition to any business is residential proxies. They are essential to web scraping and other operations like review monitoring, social media auditing, website verification, ad verification, and ad verification. Their ability to bypass rate and IP restrictions is central to their utility.