Just Buy a Single Residential Proxy – it’s Often Enough to Succeed
If you are reading this page online then you will have connected to this website by using an IP address. That’s not a guess, without this unique network number then the internet simply doesn’t work. Every single device has an IP address, whether it’s a smart phone, media streamer to internet enabled toasters! Every device needs one, whether it’s from your ISP, from a pool of data center IP addresses or via your college connection.
This address is technically completely unique online, although if you share a connection then you’re likely to share an internet address too. It’s certainly linked to a physical location though and can be easily tracked from any websites, download sites or social networks. This lack of privacy is unnerving to many of us who wish to use the internet completely innocently but with some level of anonymity too.
Unfortunately this essential address is also the primary means by which we’re tracked, monitored and logged if we don’t do anything to protect ourselves. However if you invest in just one residential proxy you can both ensure your privacy and use it for all sorts of purposes online. Whether for commercial reasons like market research, being an online entrepreneur or just so you can use the internet and social networks without judgement or fear. If this sounds far fetched, there are countries where physical and digital boundaries are blurred and you can be imprisoned for even saying the wrong thing.
This is where the proxy server comes in, an internet protection system designed to allow a little sense of privacy when we’re online. Although in reality it’s often used in many other ways largely to make money online too. The proxy server sits in between you and the resources you visit, protecting your connection and hiding your real IP address.
Here’s a little example of what actually happens, specifically when you use a ‘residential proxy network ‘ to surf online.
As you can see the proxy network creates a barrier between you and the website you’re visiting. Great for privacy but also for controlling what the websites actually see when you connect to them. You can channel all your data, a specific browser or even just configure an application like a chrome extension to utilize the proxy network only.
All properly configured proxies preserve your anonymity to some extent but ‘residential proxies’ go one step further and hide the proxy usage itself.
Introducing Residential Proxy Servers
Here’s a quick video introduction to the subject of these smart proxies which you might find interesting. You can find it on YouTube entitled What are Residential Proxy Servers but for your convenience we have embedded it here too.
As you can see, these residential proxy servers are pretty sophisticated and best use cases are valuable. Although you access them through a single gateway address, the residential proxies can rotate through a number of different addresses. The critical difference for these monthly residential proxies you see is that all the outbound connections are made with residential IP addresses. This potentially allows a single PC or application to open unlimited concurrent sessions to any website, E-store or online facility. What’s more each connection will appear as a unique individual especially if the proxies residential based rather than datacenter proxies.
These residential addresses are normally assigned to home users via their Internet service providers. They are important because they effectively hide the fact that you’re using a proxy server at all. If a web site sees a datacenter IP address then there’s a high probability that the incoming connection might be a proxy which means any account use is often monitored very carefully. However residential ips are presumed to be an ordinary home user and will be generally trusted.
It Doesn’t Cost Much to Run a Single Residential Proxy
It’s not the proxy server software or hardware that’s particularly expensive it’s the IP addresses. In fact even one static residential IP can cost quite a lot of money to acquire for a proxy network. The problem is that residential IP addresses aren’t allocated anywhere outside the home user/ISP arrangement so they’re very difficult to obtain. Datacenter IP addresses are simple to get and therefore very inexpensive, but they’re very easily identified as being proxy servers. Let’s face it if you’re using a disguise you don’t want a big sign over your head stating that you are in disguise!
There are a variety of ways in which these proxy service companies can actually obtain these residential IPs to use. However some are very time and capital intensive so it’s obvious these costs are going to be passed on to their customers. In some ways this is part of why residential proxies are so effective in a variety of roles, they’re beyond suspicion.
Lots of people use them to buy sports shoes online from restricted sales sites. They are effectively called sneaker proxies and are used to bypass the sale restrictions from sites like Nike, Adidas and Supreme. In fact many people set up with sneaker bots, sneaker proxies and a few different forms of payment make thousands of dollars buying and reselling sneakers online.
Have a product or service you need to sell, why not use a proxy to post under multiple accounts on a website like Craigslist or Instagram? If you have the right product this can multiply your potential market several times if you’re careful. There’s really no limit to the potential number of accounts which you can run on all sorts of platforms when you use proxies. Another common use is for social media marketing, where you can run things like multiple Twitter or Instagram accounts without penalty.
All these scenarios can produce serious profits but using a different residential IP for each connection is essential.
Best Value are Rotating Residential Proxies
Although it’s great to have access to thousands of residential IP addresses, it’s often not essential to use them concurrently. In fact for most people, having access to one at a time is enough. Over the last few years by analyzing use cases, companies have created a new solution involving rotation options through each residential IP address. Most of us don’t want to go the expense of having a proxy network sitting idly by until we need it. This is why many proxy service companies not offer something called rotating residential proxies which allow you access to a pool of addresses through a single gateway. The idea is that these proxies rotate your connection through different residential IPs automatically. It’s perfect for running tools which simulate multiple users and the cost is way less than reserving a pool of addresses for your exclusive use.
They’re are only a few places you can buy these residential proxies, one of the most reasonable I have found is this company – RotatingProxies.Com they’re a great place to start if you’re looking for rotating residential proxies for whatever reason.
