Types of Proxy Servers

Proxy servers are a great tool for working on the Internet. They keep your data secure and let you browse anonymously. The variety of proxy types supports a wide range of use cases, allowing you to work efficiently and lessen stress.

Our proxy service is also great for scanning sites from specific regions while preventing blocks.

Proxy servers function as intermediaries that your requests pass through before reaching the target server. A proxy server maintains your online anonymity by providing you with an alternative IP address.

This article discusses several types of proxy servers, their benefits, and the use cases appropriate for each type.

Data Center Proxies

Data center proxies operate in the cloud, providing made-up IP addresses that exist primarily for masking purposes. These proxies offer several levels of anonymity, the highest one being an Elite Level 1 proxy server (also called a High Anonymous proxy). With this level, the server you connect to receives no information about your actual IP address. In fact, it cannot even detect that the connection was made through a proxy.

ProxyMesh provides Level 1 Elite data center rotating proxies, which are shared. That is, other users will connect to the same proxy at the same time.

Rotating Proxy Server

Blocking happens when websites identify and block your IP address because you’re making too many requests from the same IP, or staying on the remote site too long. A rotating proxy provides you with IP addresses that change automatically, so you can do your online research uninterrupted. You get a new IP address with each new data request. This gives you a higher degree of online anonymity when researching your competition.

When considering a good rotating proxy, these are some of the features to look for:

• number of IP addresses per server
• geographical location of IP addresses
• frequency of IP address rotation
• availability of custom headers to control IP addresses
• authentication method

Distorting Proxies

The term “distorting” refers to one of three levels of anonymity available in proxy servers. In the generally accepted classification, “distorting” is the middle level, below “elite” but more anonymous than “transparent” proxies. With a distorting proxy server, you can access remote websites while keeping your real identity hidden, although the sites could still detect that you’re working behind a proxy server. By passing along a “substitute” IP address, the distorting proxy protects you from targeted marketing and can help you get around content restrictions.

Marketers and business people, among others, can find distorting proxies helpful to their use cases, such as online data research. Again, keep in mind that some remote sites will terminate an IP address coming from a proxy. Remote sites, however, often need time to analyze and block proxied IP addresses, and this can be offset by rapid proxy rotation, with a new IP chosen at random for each request. That’s useful for high-traffic operations such as web scraping.

Another important benefit is the distortion of location data. With a proxy’s IP address, for example, you can appear to be in a country that restricts access by IPs outside that country. That can be useful for projects ranging from political research to entertainment. But be aware that, in this example, using an overseas IP can mean slower data transmission.

Transparent Proxies

A transparent proxy intervenes between a data requester and a remote site but does not modify the request or response. A transparent proxy filters out unwanted content but does not mask your IP address to make it anonymous. The proxy can be readily recognized, and some remote sites automatically terminate proxy connections. However, some remote sites use transparent proxies too, making them look like the remote site itself but actually recording your IP address for future reference.

Private vs. Shared

Proxies can also be classified according to whether they are  private or shared. Both of these types provide excellent security by masking your IP address and omitting any other identifying information from the web request. This provides the anonymity necessary to research the web undetected. Both can filter webpage content to help improve your search. And each can be used with various web browsers.

Private (Dedicated) Proxies

A single PC can be set up as a private residential proxy, useful for emulating an ordinary consumer shopping online. Or, a data center proxy can be set up for a single user – a data-center private proxy useful in high-speed, high-volume web scraping.

Here are key benefits of private proxies. 

• First, a private proxy is assigned to only one user. so you have full control over how it is being used. This also means you’re able to work much faster. And, as the sole user, you’re not likely to experience bandwidth overload.
• With private proxies, there isn’t another user to be potentially engaged in illegal practice, leading to IP blocks for you. However, that only applies while you are using the IP. You have no idea what the IP was used for before you acquired it. So it’s important to check the IP reputation in case it was used for bad practices before.

While they have a wide range of prices, having just one user means private proxies are generally more expensive than shared proxies. But beware any private proxy that’s advertised as free. It may not provide essential support or protection from cyberthieves. Some low-cost or free private proxies may even hack data themselves.

Shared Proxies

The IP address sets of shared proxies are assigned to multiple users, often making them more affordable than a private proxy because their cost is shared.

Shared rotating proxies provide a number of IP addresses that automatically change on a pre-determined schedule of rotation. Your proxied IP address varies with each request, which prevents rate-limiting or IP blocks. You can also use multiple proxies to carry out high traffic research quickly and efficiently, which can help grow your business. And certain shared proxies can help with SEO programs and rank tracking tools.

As for disadvantages: Because shared rotating proxies are assigned to multiple users, you have less control over how the proxy is being used. Also, if another user exceeds the limit on simultaneous data requests, the remote site may detect the proxy, blocking you and others users. And if another user on the shared proxy engages in illegal activity, all sharing users could be affected.

Residential Proxies

Residential proxies are different from rotating forward proxies, which hide your IP address by substituting data center addresses. Although data center proxies hide your IP very effectively, remote sites sometimes don’t like them, and it’s still possible for a site to recognize them as data center proxies. And then you may be blocked. Or, seeing you as a competitor, the remote site may deliberately answer your query with false information.

Residential proxies, in contrast, reveal an IP from a home internet service provider – but not yours. It’s assumed that owners of residential IPs don’t have any reason to mask their identities, so the remote site is inclined to trust them. It receives your query, relayed through a proxy IP address, and sends a response back to that address, which then delivers it to you.

The IPs in a residential proxy network belong to customers who have opted at signup to lend them for proxy purposes.

Use Case Table

Here is a table showing appropriate use cases for the proxy server type described above.

Scraping Social Media

Social media scraping is a special type of use case. To scrape social media, you’ll need a proxy, but some proxy types work better than others. A residential proxy works well because, to the remote site, it looks “legitimate,” like an ordinary user. Good residential proxy services include Storm Proxies, Luminati, and OxyLabs Proxies.

In social media scraping, data center proxies are more easily blocked, because IP addresses are often shared, making it harder for a single user to limit the number of requests from one address. Too many requests will get that address blocked.

With social media scraping, some operations require you to stay logged in; but a persistent IP connection can lead to blocks. To compensate, some providers offer a slightly extended time period before the IP rotates, so that you don’t have to change your configuration. Still, you may only have a few minutes to make your requests.