What Are Static Residential Proxies and Why You Need Them

Static Residential Proxies

There are many different kinds of proxies and each has its own benefits and drawbacks that you should consider when choosing a proxy provider. In this article, we’re going to have a look at static residential proxies.

If you already have the knowledge you need, check out oxylabs static residential proxies! Before we do that, let’s get caught up on what exactly a proxy is, what a residential proxy is, and what a static residential proxy is.

Proxy

A proxy server is a special server that acts as a go-between for you and the internet. Normally, if you want to view a web page or download a file from the internet. All you have to do is type the address into your browser and grab the data directly from its server.

When using a proxy, you connect to the proxy which then makes the data request for you. The server you’re taking data from only communicates with the proxy you’re connecting through and never knows that it’s actually you making the requests.

Why Use Proxies?

Proxies have many uses but the most common is for maintaining anonymity when sending or receiving data online. Since you’re connecting to the internet through the proxy’s address.

Any service or website you grab data from assumes the proxy is your actual location. This means any cookies or trackers that want to target you will actually be targeting the proxy and you leave virtually no trace of your activities.

The ability to hide your actual location is very important for web scraping. Web scraping is the method for extracting specific, publicly available web information – usually in large volumes – to be analyzed and gain insights.

This is performed by using special web scraping bots that regularly access the websites you target and extract the data you’re looking for. Many businesses employ dozens or even hundreds of web scraping bots that are constantly checking for data from their targeted websites.

Naturally, websites don’t like it when anyone other than actual users is accessing their site. So, they have special techniques for detecting when someone is using a bot to grab their data. If your IP address is taking data too quickly and for too long of a period.

It’s likely to get blocked for suspicious, non-human activity. This is where proxies come in; by assigning a unique address to each web scraping bot. Each bot appears like an individual user accessing the website from a different location in the world.

Residential Proxy

A residential proxy is a proxy that uses an IP address that can be traced back to an Internet Service Provider (ISP). This means that each and every residential proxy has a real-world location that is physically wired to an ISP.

Since residential proxy addresses are issued by official ISPs, not virtual addresses generated by data centers like you would get from data center proxies, servers and websites tend to be more trusting of residential proxy IPs.

“Static” Residential Proxy

So, now we’ve established what a proxy is and what residential proxies are specifically. But what is a “static” residential proxy?

As the name implies, static residential proxies are residential proxies with IP addresses that do not change for the duration of your active connection.

Many proxy services, whether they’re based on data centers or residential addresses, operate using rotating IP addresses. A rotating IP address is an address that is constantly changing, hopping from one address to another at certain intervals.

Rotating IPs are great if you want to maintain absolute anonymity, as the address you’re making requests through will never be the same for long. This makes it even harder for trackers and websites to trace you.

However, some websites and services implement special measures designed to detect and ban any connection that they suspect may be using rotating IPs. A good anti-scraping implementation can detect irregular activity based on the types of packets being sent, to whom, and at what rate.

For instance, when they recognize certain, user-specific data is being sent to several different addresses during a single session, that might raise flags and indicate someone is using a rotating proxy. In order to continue activities on such a website, you’d need to ensure your IP address remains static and never changing.

In addition, some services that require persistent and stable connectivity, such as online gaming services, simply won’t work with rotating IP addresses. Transmitting and receiving time-sensitive data packets with rotating addresses can lead to a lot of packet loss and delivery errors.

Summing it all up

A proxy acts as a middleman for you and the web, acting on your behalf when sending and receiving information over the internet.

This is useful for when you want to hide your identity on the internet or when you want to appear as if you’re connecting from another location.

A residential proxy is a proxy that uses an IP address that can be traced back to an ISP. Static residential proxies are residential proxies that let you use a single IP address for as long as you want.

This is useful for when you want to connect to a website or use a service that detects IP address changes.

 

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