How to detect whether the proxy you purchased is a residential proxy IP?

Have you ever had such concerns: Is the proxy I purchased a real residential proxy IP?

No one wants to spend a high price but only get a cheap product. Then you are right to click into this article. This article will introduce you to the simplest way to verify whether the product you purchased is a real residential proxy IP.

If you are new to proxies, we have also prepared some useful information to help you quickly master the relevant knowledge of residential proxies and data center proxies so that you can make the right purchasing choice.

How to detect whether the proxy you purchased is a residential proxy IP?

Determining the source of a proxy IP is not as complicated as you might think. You only need to use some free online tools. The simplest and most commonly used one is IPHub.info.

IPHub.info is an open source website tool that is very convenient to use. You only need to use your proxy device (computer, mobile phone, iPad, etc.) to directly access the https://iphub.info/ website. The daily access limit for a single IP is 1,000 times. If you have a larger access test requirement, they also provide corresponding paid packages. But I believe that the free access number can meet the needs of ordinary users.

If you use a residential proxy IP, it will return something like this:

If you are using a data center IP, it will return something like this:

Other websites that can detect IP address ISP providers, but here is a reminder that due to the different IP address detection ISP provider websites, the IP database content may cause you to test your IP address on website A as a residential address, and go to website B to test your IP address as a computer room. In this case, it is recommended that you focus on the practicality of the IP. If you are not sure, you can contact customer service for consultation

• https://ipinfo.io/
• https://www.ip2proxy.com/
• https://www.ipinfodb.com/
• https://www.ipqualityscore.com/

Definition of Residential Proxy Servers and Datacenter Proxy Servers

The naming conventions of different types of proxy servers are directly related to the source of their IP. Although the purpose of proxies is to change your IP address and route your requests through their servers, their functions are different. Below we will briefly introduce how residential proxies and data center proxies work.

Residential Proxy Servers

First, let's look at residential proxies, the most popular type of proxy server on the market. Residential proxies are IPs of real devices owned by people in different cities and countries around the world. They are real IP addresses provided to users by Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Since these IP addresses are connected to real physical devices, it is easy to replicate human organic behavior using them. So when you use a residential proxy to request access, your IP will be treated as a request from a normal interactive user, making it almost impossible to be banned.

Data Center Proxy Server

Unlike residential proxies, data center proxies are proxies that are not affiliated with an Internet Service Provider (ISP). They come from a secondary company. A batch of data center IPs are usually assigned to a server, and then the data collection traffic can be routed through this server. So data center IPs usually come from data centers (computer rooms) and cloud hosting services and are used by many people at the same time. The way it works is also quite simple. When you send a request to a specific website, the request is processed through the proxy server in the data center. After that, the server masks your IP address by assigning a different IP address before sending the request.

The difference between residential proxies and datacenter proxies

Security

Residential proxies are harder to identify because they use real IP addresses and work through their ISP’s network, making them look like any other regular Internet user. This makes residential proxies harder to block, thus ensuring that all your online activities go smoothly.

Datacenter proxies, as mentioned before, are created in bulk and come from datacenter and cloud server providers. Datacenter proxies use the same subnet of the datacenter, and if an IP is detected, the datacenter proxies will get a large number of subnet bans. So if you buy from an untrusted provider, it is easy to be discovered and blacklisted and have your IP banned.

Location Coverage

Data center proxies only work in the countries where their servers are located, and there are usually not many of these server locations. However, residential proxies can collect IP addresses from many countries around the world because of their working principle. You only need to select the corresponding country to use. Some residential proxies also provide more detailed geographic location options (such as cities, states, ISPs), which will allow you to get the best IP allocation for intense network operations such as sneaker shopping.

Applicability

Residential proxies can be used for almost all applications, including data collection, price aggregation, snapping up limited online transactions, search engine optimization, social account management, etc. Based on its security, we do not recommend you to choose it for operations involving sensitive information, but it is no problem to unblock ordinary networks and games.

speed

Datacenter proxies retrieve information faster because the request is sent directly from the server to the destination site. Residential proxies, on the other hand, typically require a request to have more "hops" (the number of routers a packet of data needs to go through on its way to and from the destination domain) during its retrieval process.

But speed is not the main factor, because if you move too fast, you will also be blocked as a “non-human behavior” page. On the contrary, if you choose a residential proxy location close to your target, you can also get the best speed.

price

The most powerful weapon in the data center vs residential proxy battle is price. Residential proxies are more expensive to acquire and maintain, so they cost more.

Whereas datacenter proxies are cheaper because they are created and managed in large quantities by datacenters. Due to their availability, datacenter proxies can be offered at more affordable prices (the fact that they are not as reliable also makes them cheaper).

If a slower pace doesn’t bother you, but security should be your priority, then you should opt for a residential proxy. Also, if your main interest is protecting sensitive data that you might share with your business partners, or if you are harvesting data that you can’t stop collecting, a residential proxy provides you with the necessary security to avoid possible blocking.

Summarize

In this article, we also introduce how to simply determine whether the proxy you purchased is a residential IP, as well as the difference between residential proxies and data proxies. I hope it will be helpful to you.