What are Residential Proxies, and How Do They Work?

The Social Proxy
3 min readJun 29, 2021

Privacy, especially in using the internet, is a necessity and should not be taken for granted. This is why using a proxy network is essential. Let us guide you through how proxies, especially residential proxies, work for you.

Proxy Server: How is it defined?

A proxy server serves as an intermediary between the user and the internet. It is like a firewall that prevents personal information from being protected from unwanted things like fraudulent activities.

Residential IP Address: What is it, and how does it work?

The IP address or Internet Protocol address is a set of numbers divided by periods assigned by the IANA or Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. The IP address is an identification from the other internet u

On the other hand, a residential IP address is a set of numbers assigned by your Internet Service Provider. This number changes over time as it is not permanent. When you use your social media accounts, your identity gets revealed because your ISP, IP address, and location are known. This could be why you cannot access some websites, or you can’t see some content because they are available in another country or location but not in yours.

Residential Proxies: What does it mean? How does it work?

As mentioned above, a proxy is a middle man between the user and the web. Upon using a proxy server, your identity becomes anonymous because this is one of the advantages of using a proxy server.

A residential proxy uses another residential IP address in a specific area or locality. It allows you to choose a certain area, may it be a city or any locality, and you can browse the internet as if you were in that certain location. With this, you will not be geo-blocked, and you can do web scraping at any time.

Residential proxies work by channeling your request to go through the server. The proxy serves as your channel that makes the request using an alternate residential IP address. Once the site permits you, you can freely access the data on that site.

When you don’t use any residential proxy for any transaction online, you request the site with your IP address being visible. Thus, you can easily get located and your network gets identified. By using a residential proxy, your IP address gets masked, making you anonymous.

Residential Proxies: How are they used?

Overall, a proxy is used for privacy and safety, especially in using the internet. However, there are other clear uses of a residential proxy.

Manage Multiple Social Media Account

Social Media is now very strict when it comes to its users. They do not allow users to have multiple accounts to avoid suspicious activities. However, residential proxies make this possible by protecting each account in each device to avoid getting banned or flagged from the different social media accounts.

Web Scraping

By definition, web scraping is gathering data from the internet. However, some sites prohibit this depending on your area of location. With the use of a residential proxy, you can access data from a specific region without getting blocked. In addition, your IP address will not be displayed when you are web scraping.

Prevent Being Traced and Protect Your Brand Name

Whether you are a business or not, you need a residential proxy to protect your identity and avoid getting tracked and traced. If you want to monitor competition, you can do some research, and there is no need to worry about getting traced or followed by your competitor. You can maintain your identity as a client.

Conclusion

A residential proxy is handy to sum things up, especially if you want to maintain anonymity and your privacy. There are many benefits to having a residential proxy at home because you will sleep with ease as you know your data gets protected all the time.

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The Social Proxy

High-Quality 5G & 4G Mobile Private Proxies in the USA (New York & Texas), United Kingdom, Austria, Germany, and Israel.