Cybercrime is everywhere, and almost every device connected to the internet is vulnerable to online attacks. Since we live in a world where we cannot use the internet worry-free, we need to think of ways to protect our data and keep us away from threats. Since the dawn of the internet, proxies have been some of the best tools to protect our devices.
There are many types of proxies on the market, and you can choose the one that fits your lifestyle best. Residential proxies are among the most popular, but can web servers detect and block them?
We have investigated this issue and found the answer. Before getting into it, let’s see what these proxies are all about.
What is a Residential Proxy?
Generally, proxies act as an intermediate between you and the hosting servers of all the websites you visit. You can think of proxy servers as a block standing between you and web servers, protecting you from third parties trying to intercept your data transmission.
The differences between proxies are determined by the type of IP (Internet Protocol) address they use to connect you to the internet.
When it comes to residential proxies, as the name suggests, they use residential addresses. That means they connect to an already existing device’s network. Your location on the internet will appear as someone else’s, storing your data away from your original internet location.
However, the question remains: can web servers detect and block these proxies? Find the answer to this question below.
Residential Proxies and Anonymity
A proxy server’s principal purpose is to hide your identity from other parties on the internet by giving you a different internet location.
When it comes to datacenter proxies, you will receive an address from a data center; you won’t appear as a legitimate internet user with an appropriate device to surf the internet. You may have heard about websites blocking proxies, thus revealing your true internet identity.
That is not the case with residential proxy servers. When you use a residential proxy server, your IP address will be legitimate and link to an ordinary internet-enabled device. You won’t get an IP block because there won’t be anything suspicious about your IP address. You can freely surf the internet without fearing the websites you visit suddenly blocking your proxy and revealing your identity.
As you can already conclude, residential proxy servers are some of the best tools to use to be anonymous on the internet. These servers will successfully hide your address without a chance of revealing it. However, when using a residential proxy, we advise you to connect to an address in your country to avoid any possible complications.
To increase your anonymity on the internet, you can connect to an address in your country. When web servers search for abnormalities, they won’t be able to detect your proxy server because you are making HTTP requests from your country. For example, making requests from an Australian address to American domains would be suspicious.
Hiding your identity on the internet isn’t the only purpose of residential proxy servers. You can enjoy many other benefits by using this proxy server, as you will see below.
Benefits of using Residential Proxies
Aside from protecting you from cyberattacks, residential proxy servers can give you access to many more features.
Web scraping
If you own a business, you may wonder how to improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and build a better reputation. Proxy servers can help with this step by facilitating web scraping. You can collect data from your competitors, analyze it, and see how you can improve your efforts.
Sending multiple HTTP requests from a single IP address will not get you an IP block when using a residential proxy.
Unlocking geo-restricted content
Many countries ban specific websites, preventing users from accessing them. For instance, you cannot access Facebook and Twitter in some countries.
Many websites have geo-restricted content, preventing users from other countries from accessing it or providing only a portion of their information.
A residential proxy server can give you access to all content unavailable in your location.
Faster connections
A residential proxy server will detect and block any possible DDoS attacks (Distributed Denial of Service) that may slow down your internet connection.
This server will also remove any unnecessary traffic, thus making your internet work smoothly and with no bugs. It will automatically reject any potentially harmful behavior.
Conclusion
We can divide the digital world into two parts; those who use the internet and those who use the users. Use a proxy server to protect yourself from the latter.
Residential proxies are among the best for online anonymity and avoiding IP detection and blocking. Find a reliable provider to enjoy their benefits, and steer clear of free proxy servers because they don’t have encryption and may contain malicious software.
