There are a multitude of proxies and proxy services available online,
but not all are created equal.
When it comes to proxies, the ‘residential’ variety often reign supreme. A residential proxy acts as an intermediary internet address provided by an ISP (internet service provider), NOT a data center. This is an important distinction, and one that makes residential IPs so valuable for online tasks (such as scraping, scanning, data collection, and more.)
Every residential proxy is attached to (or represents) an actual physical location. Despite the billions of IPs in use, each can be uniquely attributed to the location of any device that is using that IP address.
In other words, every time you venture online, your device is giving out identifiable information about you, including your real IP address AND REAL LOCATION.
As you may have guessed, this isn’t exactly ideal, and can pose problems, especially when trying to access sites that are ‘geo-locked to certain jurisdictions. In other cases, social media and other sites might block datacenter IPs in an effort to thwart crawling or scraping.
Lucky for you, a residential proxy network lets you tap into the power of a massive network of real
residential IP addresses, mimicking a real location and opening up a world of possibilities.
How Do I Get a Residential IP Address?
Just like proxies, proxy providers come in many shapes and flavors, and similarly, they aren’t always up to the standards you require.
Some providers will even sell off non-residential proxies as residential in the hopes that you won’t notice, or they will oversell these pools or abuse them to the extent that the IP network is essentially useless.
At ProxyEmpire we believe you deserve better. Our company was founded by veterans of the industry, bringing combined decades of experience to the table. We’ve worked hard to establish a residential proxy network that spans more than 105 countries, offering you a robust, safe, secure, fast and effective solution for your residential IP address needs.
In other words, if you’re asking the question “How do I get a
residential IP address”, you couldn’t be on a better site to find exactly what you need and more.
How Do Residential Proxies Work?
Before we dive in, it’s important to re-iterate that residential proxies are NOT datacenter proxies. Datacenter proxies are cheap, but for a reason…they are EASY for service providers to block, and they do this frequently. This makes datacenter proxies unreliable at best, and incredibly frustrating to use.
Residential proxies, by contrast, are in high demand these days, offering a myriad of benefits, reliability and scale that many in the online world need to get more done faster.
Connect your device to the proxy (Our proxies work right out of the box and require zero complicated setups)
Go about your business online. Be this running a software, scraper, crawler, or simply browsing the web. When you do this, the proxies will route your internet traffic through an intermediary server (this is where the magic happens).
The intermediary server then swaps out the actual IP address you are using to connect, with the residential proxy IP address you purchased/rented.
As far as the site you visit is concerned, the residential
proxy address IS your real IP, and no one is the wiser.
Why Use a Residential Proxy Network?
Residential proxies (IPS) are authentic and trustworthy, being in all ways the exact same as the residential IP established on your own home’s ISP connection.
Residential proxies can be used for a broad range of tasks online, from automation to market research. Below we outline some of the most popular ways to use residential proxies.
True to their name, rotating residential proxies, well, they rotate. Sometimes referred to as ‘backconnect proxies’, this type of proxy hides your true IP identity behind a rotating pool of residential IP addresses and automatically switch based on defined time intervals or with each ‘session’.
Rotating residential IPs enable you to carry out unlimited repeat actions on a site without being flagged for ‘suspicious activity’.
Web Scraping: Gathering intelligence and data is often done at scale by scraping the web, databases, or even competitor sites. Yet IP limits and restrictions on data center IPs make doing so difficult. With a residential IP network, you can rotate through IPs, bypassing access limits and enabling you to get the data you need at scale.
Automation: From SEOs to online marketers and those who deal with web data, having the right tools to scan, locate, identify, scrape, log and organize data at scale is paramount. Residential IPs can be used along with software for data extraction, automating processes (such as registrations, clicks, mimicking user behavior, gathering business intelligence, and more.
Price Monitoring: Do you need to monitor competitor prices for 100s or 1000s of products daily? This would be impossible with regular proxies. Residential proxy networks enable you to tap into as many IPs as needed to safely and securely access these sites, grab pricing information, and pipe that data back to your own systems or apps for further use (think price monitoring tools and apps).
Market Research: From SEO to ad verification or testing out affiliate site and links, using localized residential IPs can help you test theories, gain unique insights in local markets, see blocked or hidden ads targeting certain GEOs and more. These proxies can give you the privacy and scaling tools needed to scope out the competition, survey the digital market, and leverage your most powerful SEO and market intelligence tools unhindered by IP restrictions.
Social Networks: Many sites have data center and shoddy IPs banned outright. This makes creating accounts on these platforms near impossible without residential or mobile proxies. Popular websites on which residential proxies may be used include Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Ticket & Sneaker Sites: These two industries are ripe with manipulation, and tightly monitored for unauthorized access by those looking to buy multiple items of newly released products, monitor prices, or ‘scalp’. Sometimes referred to as ‘sneaker proxies’, residential proxies offer a more reliable way to access sites such as Nike, EastBay, Supreme Shoes, and others. Similarly, ticket sites are known to feverishly block IPs they think are suspect, and/or limit how many tickets can be purchased per IP. Residential IPs enable savvy buyers to swoop in and grab up a significant portion of the ticket inventory for selling at a premium on the secondary market.
Take It To The Next Level
Proxies are what we do best. Contact us or sign up today to find out why so many business and marketing professionals trust us to provide them with world class support and reliable residential proxies that get the job done right.
TL;DR
This article elaborates on residential proxies, hailed as paramount for online tasks like scraping or data collection. Unlike datacenter IPs, residential proxies are provided by an ISP, each tied to an actual physical location and identifiable with its real IP address. These proxies essentially acting as the user’s real IP and location, invaluable when accessing geo-locked or scrape-blocked sites.
Acquiring a reliable residential IP address may be challenging with providers resorting to deceptive tactics like selling non-residential ones as residential. ProxyEmpire guarantees legitimate residential proxies, spanning more than 105 countries and formulated for efficiency and security.
Residential proxies are distinct from datacenter proxies, providing a host of benefits, reliability, and scale necessary for online work. They route internet traffic via an intermediary server, replacing the actual IP with the residential proxy IP, thereby masking the user’s real IP.
Residential proxies serve a variety of online tasks, including web scraping and price monitoring, providing essential flexibility to bypass IP limits and access maximum data. They also aid in market research, providing localized access to various geographical areas for digital market analysis and for accessing social networks like Facebook or Twitter and ticket and sneaker sites that often block suspicious IPs.
To facilitate your business or marketing requirements, ProxyEmpire provides reliable residential proxy solutions for better productivity and efficacy.
