Web Scraping: How to Choose the Right Proxies

A proxy is critical for business. So if you have an idea of what it does, you’ll tell my line of thought. However, first, let’s give it a definition.

A proxy server is dedicated software running on a computer, which is more or less an intermediary between a computer and another server when a client requested a service from. The proxy server may be on the same firewall server or a separate server and pushes requests via the firewall.

How to Choose the Right Proxies

If you feel like you need to familiarize yourself with proxies more, this article tells you all you need to know about “?”.

Types of Proxies

Residential proxies feature IP addresses that are related to a residential address, and that makes them very unlikely to get hit by the sled hammer. You can hide your real IP address in that case — even get around geo-blocked content and possibly scrape data endlessly.

Residential proxies are more trustworthy in the eyes of web servers, and it is no brainer why so — they’re assigned to only real residential IP addresses. The truth is that some websites will detect that you’re connected via a proxy and may block you. That never gets to happen when you’re using a residential IP.

Datacenter :

Datacenter proxies are the most popular proxies out there. When you hide your IP address, they have no relationship with your internet connection or ISP — they’re independent of either of them. That makes it easy hiding your IP address and not considered to be in one location.

Most times, you’ll buy datacenter proxies in bulk, and you have an array of IP addresses that will not have any connection with the internet service provider. When you initiate a connection with any of the datacenter proxies, your IP address will be masked as it provides you with a new IP address. It will seem like you’re in a different location.

Shared Proxies

Shared proxies are IP addresses that two or more people use at the same time. When you compared them with private proxies, they’re considered inferior. However, it can be used for less challenging tasks online. What’s more, they tend to be considerably cheaper in comparison to private proxies.

Mobile IPs:

Choose these proxy services when you need to crawl data available for the mobile web. in this case also there is a legal concern as the mobile phone owner might not be aware that you are using their network for web crawling.

Dedicated Proxies

The name speaks of what it does — it is exclusively used by one person at a given time. These proxies work well for SEO, social media, marketing, and other web scraping purposes. Because of overall performance too.

Semi-Dedicated

These proxies are in between the already mentioned proxies — they’re not wholly shared nor dedicated. They fit perfectly for a group of 2-5 users.

What Should a Business Look Out for When Obtaining Proxies
Reliable, Secure and Safe

Businesses need to consider these factors when they choose a proxy service. You’ll want your provider to be reliable. More so, ensure that the proxy is fast, secure, and safe. Another thing is availability; it should readily come to mind too.

There are several ways to get a reliable, secure, and safe proxy service. You’ll have to employ a direct approach — by searching the web. The web provides you different options to proxy providers. Once you found a proxy provider, you feel can meet your needs, ensure that you take a free trial first before committing to one.

Consider the Location List of the Proxy Service Provider

If your business requires proxies from specific locations, it’s advisable to pitch a tent with a provider that has a larger IP pool. Typically, such proxy providers can also offer city-level and country targeting. Moreover, larger IP pool usually has smaller IP blocks.

The Size of the Provider’s IP Pool Matters

When it comes to geo-location coverage, providers of residential proxies come with several locations. If your business needs proxies in countries that are not popular, get the list of cities and countries before paying for any.

You have to understand that the list of supported countries on the proxy provider’s website is not guaranteed that you can pick a required location. Certain providers will not allow you to choose an area of proxy. So be mindful of that.

Vetting Proxies

Vetting proxies — be it residential proxies or data center—is essential for every data source, especially if you’re going for more popular ones. Otherwise, businesses would be gathering data that may not be beneficial to their market. You might even collect false data using a bad proxy — and that can sabotage your business.

Businesses use proxies for web scraping purposes — and when they do, they want them to meet their needs.

How to manage your proxy pool

  • Identify Bans
  • Control Proxies
  • Retry Errors
  • User-Agents
  • Geographical Targeting
  • Add Delays

If you own your own residential IPs then you will need to handle this consent yourself. The type of proxy you pick to work with has a direct impact on whether you will be successfully able to gather the required data. Choose wisely and use them to your advantage.

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