Proxy Server FAQ
People ask us about ProxyMesh’s proxies. If you’d like to know more, have a look at the Frequently Asked Questions below. For easy reference, the first column lists popular queries; the middle column answers your immediate question, and the column on the right offers links to more details.
People ask us about ProxyMesh’s proxies. If you’d like to know more, have a look at the Frequently Asked Questions below. For easy reference, the first column lists popular queries; the middle column answers your immediate question, and the column on the right offers links to more details.
Or, do you have a not-so-frequently-ask question? Then please contact ProxyMesh Support and we’ll answer promptly.
| People ask… | Quick Answer | Read for further information… |
| Location | ||
| What are the locations of the proxy servers? | There are 8 proxies in the US; 8 international proxies; plus the World Proxy and the Open Proxy. |
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| Can I get a list of your dedicated servers? | We have no dedicated proxies; they are shared among subscribers. | |
| Features | ||
| What are the features of the anonymous rotating proxy server? | Level 1 Elite, the highest level of anonymity. Automatically rotates IPs every 12 hours. Hides your IP address. Supports IP address authentication and custom headers. |
Please also see our blogs:
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| What is the difference between a rotating proxy and a static proxy? | A rotating proxy periodically supplies a fresh set of IPs to help avoid blocks. A static proxy does not rotate IPs |
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| Do you have city-specific proxies? | No. Please try Wonder Proxy. | |
| Do you have static proxies? | Yes, our World Proxy is a static proxy. |
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| Do you have a residential proxy? | Yes, it has mobile & residential ISP IPs, but runs in a datacenter. |
Please also see our blogs: |
| Do the residential proxies work with social media? | Residential proxies are great for such tasks as measuring public sentiment, identifying influencers, and location-sensitive research. However, our service may not work as well as others for social media. | |
| How does the Open proxy server work? | Provides Level 2 anonymity. Maintains a list of known open proxy IPs which it uses to forward your requests. |
Please also see our blogs:
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| I'm trying to send a request on the Open Proxy. The proxy is prompting me for username and password even though I've whitelisted my IP address. | We do not recommend you entering your username and password as this may be a possible password collection attempt. Cancel and retry the request. |
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| How do transparent proxies work? | They do not hide your IP address so they do not provide anonymity. They can be useful for caching data and speeding access to frequently visited websites. |
Please also see our blog |
| How does the World Proxy server work? | It provides a static set of up to 25,000 IP addresses located around the world. The IPs do not rotate but custom headers can be used to control the IP address. |
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| Does use of the Open Proxy count toward the bandwidth usage limit on my plan? | Yes, use of the Open Proxy counts toward your bandwidth usage limit. Bandwidth charges are based on your pricing plan. | |
| Does use of the World Proxy count toward the bandwidth usage limit on my plan? | Yes, use of the World Proxy counts toward your bandwidth usage limit. |
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| What is the bandwidth limit for your residential proxies? | All subscriptions including ISP-residential provide uncapped bandwidth. Each plan has an included amount, with per-GB overage charges. You can buy prepaid additional bandwidth at a reduced rate on the ProxyMesh 100 plan. | |
Does ProxyMesh work with "man in the middle" proxy tools? |
No, it's not designed for it. |
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| Are your proxies IPv4 or IPv6? | Some of our proxies now have IPv6, as well as IPv4. Users do not need to do anything special. The IPv6 address will be shown to the remote site. |
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| Status/Uptime | ||
| How can I check the status of a server? | See the ProxyMesh Status webpage. We also announce scheduled maintenance via Twitter. | |
| What do the proxy server status messages mean? | The messages give you the status of a given proxy server. See article for the meaning of each message. |
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| Before I run a high-traffic project, how can I check on status and uptime of the proxies and the system? | Go to the Proxy Status Page to check on status, uptime, and maintenance times. |
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| Limits | ||
| Is there a limit to the number of proxy servers I can have? | Yes, depending on your plan. On the 50 & 100 plans, you can add extra proxies. |
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| How do I add extra proxies? | The 50 and 100 plans offer access to additional proxies starting at $10/month. For assistance, please contact us |
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| Authorization | ||
| How to authorize a proxy? | Add your IP to your account dashboard to authorize a proxy; or use the ProxyMesh API. |
Please also see our blog |
My requests aren't reaching the proxy I've selected. I'm getting 402 errors and I'm blocked. |
A 402 error means payment requested. Your account is inactive, or the proxy is not authorized. |
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| IPs | ||
| Can I add IPs to a Proxy? | You cannot add IPs to our shared proxies. Add more proxies for more IPs. |
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| What is a shared proxy? | A shared proxy makes a set of IP addresses available to many users at the same time. Shared proxies, generally used in web scraping, are relatively inexpensive. |
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| How to restrict IP choices to a specific country? | Use a proxy in that country, or use the X-ProxyMesh-Country header for the World proxy. |
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| How to use the same IP for a series of requests? | Use the X-ProxyMesh-IP header. |
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| How many of my own IP addresses can I have? | We support up to 100 authenticated IP addresses, regardless of which proxy you use. | |
| Can you whitelist my IP address? | Proxy Mesh does not actually white list IPs. But you are whitelisting your IP when you authorize it on your Dashboard. However, If your IP is blocked, ProxyMesh cannot whitelist it for you. Please contact your Internet Service Provider to obtain a good reputation IP. |
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| Connections | ||
| Why am I having proxy connection problems? | Using a VPN, trying to connect from a server instead of a browser, or using incorrect login credentials can create connection problems. Too many attempts may create a temporary block of 4 to 6 hours. |
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I'm getting 408 timeout messages. |
A 408 error means the request took longer than the default of 20 seconds. Please retry your requests up to 3 times, ideally with a short delay of at least 1 second between retries. |
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| What are the best practices for using high-traffic proxy connections? | Reduce the number of concurrent requests from a single IP. Add more proxies for more connection strategies. Use proxies located near a specific area. Minimize requests to pull images, JavaScript, and CSS files. |
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| Headers | ||
| How do I use custom headers? | See article for details. |
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I'm trying to connect to the World Proxy [or a country proxy] with a X-ProxyMesh-Country custom header, but I can't visit the website I want. |
Check the status page for each proxy to see what country codes and how many IPs are currently available. | |
| Can I restore a deleted Authorization header for selected requests? | Use the Enable Headers link on the right side of your dashboard. But first you must use IP authentication, or the Proxy-Authorization header, to authenticate your requests to the proxy. |
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| Languages | ||
| How do I use Scrapy framework for requests? | You must set the http_proxy environment variable. See article for details. |
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| How do I use Selenium + Chrome for requests? | See article for details. |
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| How do I use Selenium + Firefox for requests? | See article for details. |
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| What URL or hostname do I use for Selenium? | Use any that you already have access to. | |
| How to limit Selenium requests to a single IP in Firefox? | See article for details. |
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| What about other languages? | See the Proxy Configuration docs. | |
| HTTP | ||
| How do I make HTTP requests? | Requests is a great Python library for doing HTTP requests. Please see article for details. |
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| How do I use the HTTPS CONNECT method? | Please see the Proxy Server Requests over HTTPS article for details. |
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| Security | ||
| What type of security does ProxyMesh have? | Please see article for complete information. |
Please also see our blogs: |
| Error codes/messages | ||
| What are the meanings and causes of error codes? | Please see article for complete information. |
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I’m receiving a |
Please read the Proxy Connection Problems article to see if you can resolve the issue. If you are unable to resolve the 402 error, please contact Support. |
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| What to do about an "Alert 80" error message? | Make sure you added your IP to the IP authentication list. Use an effective request retry strategy employing intervals before retries. |
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I’m getting 402 error codes. I’m trying to connect to a specific proxy, but my request goes to a different proxy. |
This can be a configuration issue. Please check your configurations. Also, if you are using middleware, consider using the Scrapy default proxy configuration. |
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I'm getting a lot of |
Some users may send data requests from an IP address without first authorizing it to the proxy. This causes an automatic block from the proxy. The block should expire, allowing you to try again after authorizing your IP to the proxy. |
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I'm getting |
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| Why do I keep getting "ERR_PROXY _CONNECTION _FAILED" messages? | Review the "Request Retry Strategy" article for ideas on retrying failed requests. Also review the Proxy Connection Problems article. |
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| I am getting errors with my requests in the Ruby language that show up on some proxies and not others, or two proxies return different error codes to the same request. | Try having your software ignore the Content-Length header to resolve the EOF.error. For SSL errors, try deleting username:password from the request script and use IP authentication instead. Then update your configuration to use the newly selected proxies. |
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| Response codes | ||
| What do the proxy server response codes mean? | Please see the article "Proxy Server Request & Response Headers for detailed information. |
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| Blocked Requests | ||
| My requests aren't reaching the proxy I've selected, and I'm blocked. | Please see the article for details. | |
| Multiple server code | ||
| What code do I use for multiple proxy servers? | It varies. Please see the article for examples. |
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| Proxy masking | ||
| How does proxy masking work? | The rotating proxy servers do not allow any identifying headers to be passed along in requests. |
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| Proxy anonymity | ||
| What levels of proxy anonymity are there? | See articles for details |
Please also see our blogs:
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| Compressed data | ||
| How can I get compressed data through the proxy? | Use compression headers in your request. |
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| Google/search engines | ||
| Do the proxies support requests to Google or search engines? | ProxyMesh doesn't work well for requests to Google or search engines. We recommend Trusted Proxies or Luminati instead. |
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| Server Latency | ||
| How do I manage server latency? | Select a server close to the server you want to communicate with. Use the World proxy to connect to a specific country with a custom header. |
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| Dashboard | ||
| I just signed up for the service, but my dashboard won't come up so I can use it. What's going on? | Your confirmation email may have been delayed but should arrive shortly. Also, making frequent requests to the proxy’s API before receiving your confirmation email can resulting in a temporary block of 4-6 hours. Using a VPN may create connection issues. | N/A |
Further Reading |
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Where can I read more about proxies and the business benefits of scraping? |
You might start with the articles in the next column, published on our blog site. |