What is an IP proxy and what is it for?
Normally we go to the Internet through the public IP address assigned to us by our operator, either our fixed Internet operator or through mobile broadband (3G / 4G or 5G). The public IP address is our identifier on the Internet, and the websites can detect the origin of the requests to allow or block the different accesses. An IP proxy allows us to redirect all the traffic towards an intermediate server, to later go out to the Internet, masking our public IP address, because in the “eyes” of the recipients, the origin is the public IP address of the proxy server itself, and not ours. Internet connection.
There are proxy server providers like Bright Data that have thousands of servers spread all over the world, therefore, they have thousands of public IP addresses that we can use to route traffic through their servers, with the aim of masking our IP address. We can use proxies to perform different actions that, with our Internet connection and real IP, we could not do:
- Surf the Internet anonymously, all traffic will be forwarded through the proxy server.
- Skip different blocks made by websites, we will be using a different public IP address.
- Skip regional country blocks, this is ideal to watch Netflix or Disney + in other countries such as the US.
- Skip blocks made by different countries, this is ideal if you go to a country where there is censorship such as China.
As you can see, the uses that we can give to a proxy service are quite varied.
Proxy types in Bright Data
The service provided by Bright Data is one of the best we can have, we have different types of proxy to perfectly adapt to our needs. This aspect is very important, because not all proxies are used to perform all the actions that we want, it is not the same to use a proxy in a home environment to evade regional blocks and watch Netflix, than a proxy oriented to companies where we need to have a greater bandwidth, a guarantee that it works correctly with the minimum latency, and possibly, that it has a fixed public IP address, so that we always go to the Internet with this same IP address.
Next, we are going to explain all the types of proxy that we have in this service, and what uses we can give it.
Home or residential proxy
This type of proxy will allow us to surf the Internet and make requests to different web pages from real places of residence, as if we were in another home that is located in any country in the world. This type of proxy allows us to have up to 72 million unique IP addresses of real users, therefore, we will have at our disposal a large number of servers available to connect us.
Thanks to this large number of IPs spread around the world, we can access Netflix or Disney + content from anywhere in the world, as if we were physically in that country. In addition, in the event that we want to change IP addresses to “go” to another country, we can do so without problems because it allows us to change servers in an unlimited way.
The price of this service is $ 3 for each GB of data downloaded or uploaded.
Home proxy, but with fixed IP
The above type of proxy service provides us with a dynamic IP address, this means that it changes every time we connect. We also have servers available that provide us with IP addresses of residential environments that have a fixed IP, therefore, the outgoing public IP address does not change. Other characteristics of this type of service with which it has 100% network activity, and the IP addresses are available for life, they can be used as long as we need. Lastly, Bright Data has over 110,000 static residential IP addresses around the world.
This type of service is ideal for those uses that we are going to give the Internet that require the same public IP address always, normally all proxy services provide you with dynamic IP addresses that change every time you connect to it.
Data Center Proxy
This type of proxy will allow us to browse the Internet as if it were being done through a server, it is not associated with any local operator, only servers. These proxies have an availability of 99.99%, that is, they are almost always on and available to connect to them easily and quickly. In addition, a very important detail is that the connections of these servers are very stable and provide us with great performance in terms of speed and latency, ideal for browsing the Internet or making massive requests. Finally, we have the possibility to choose IP addresses shared with other Bright Data clients, or that are dedicated only to us.
If you need to have an IP address that is not associated with any operator, but is associated with a high-performance server, to have the best possible speed and the best latency, then this type of proxy is the one you should use.
The price of this service is $ 0.40 for each IP address that we use.
Proxy in 3G / 4G networks
If we want to have a public IP address that belongs to a 3G / 4G network, with this type of proxy we can achieve it. Bright Data has the largest network in the world in terms of 3G / 4G infrastructure, thanks to this, we will be able to use real 3G / 4G connections that are assigned to home users, with the aim of going to the Internet through these networks and simulate that we are on a mobile broadband network.
Another very important characteristic of this type of proxy is that there is no limitation for simultaneous connections, we can make the ones we want, in addition, we can choose which 3G / 4G and ASN operator we are going to connect to.
In this case, the price of the connection is clearly higher than the residential proxies, the price is 15 dollars for each GB of data that we download or upload.
Other types of proxy
At Bright Data we also have two additional types of proxy available that could meet your needs, below, we explain in detail what they are and what you could use them for:
- Web Unblocker: This type of proxy allows us to automatically unblock any type of blockade made by web pages, in this way, we can make requests without any problem, and we will do it quickly and easily. Another positive aspect is that it is capable of avoiding complex blocks, thanks to how it is designed, and, finally, it adapts automatically as the destination websites we want to visit evolve.
- Data collection: this type of proxy is specifically aimed at collecting web data in a fully automated way, without the need for too many actions on our part. In this case, you do not need to program anything or connect to a proxy, it is a service that is capable of collecting information with structured data and ready to use. In addition, we may collect public data with different ready-to-use templates.
If you sign up for Bright Data through this link, you can get a $ 50 credit when you deposit another $ 50.
As you have seen, depending on the use that we are going to give to the different proxies, it will be worth hiring one or the other.
