What is an IP address? Public vs private IPs explained
The basics behind every proxy: how addresses are assigned and what websites see.
What an HTTP proxy does
An HTTP proxy sits between your client and the website. The client sends the request to the proxy, the proxy forwards it to the target and relays the answer back. The target sees the proxy's IP address, not yours. With HTTPS, the proxy opens a tunnel with the CONNECT method and your traffic stays encrypted end to end.
When HTTP is enough and when you need SOCKS5
HTTP proxies understand web traffic and can add headers, cache and filter. SOCKS5 is protocol-agnostic: it forwards any TCP connection and, with UDP association, datagrams too. Choose HTTP for browsers, scrapers and SEO tools; choose SOCKS5 for messengers, games, custom protocols and anything that needs UDP.
Configuring the proxy
Most tools accept a proxy URL in the form http://USER:[email protected]:7000. In Python requests pass it in the proxies dictionary; in Node use an agent such as https-proxy-agent; in cURL use -x with -U for credentials. Add the country or city to the username to pick the exit location.
Rotation and sessions
Rotate on every request for breadth across many targets, or hold a sticky session for a sequence of actions such as login, browse, checkout. Our sticky sessions last up to 6 hours on residential and mobile pools.
Security
Never use free proxies for anything that carries credentials. A proxy sees your unencrypted HTTP traffic and can inject content. Use HTTPS targets, authenticate with login and password or an IP whitelist, and keep credentials out of logs.