What is a Residential IP?
Think of a residential IP as a connection that is assigned to a homeowner from an ISP. When you move to a new house or apartment and set up the internet, your connection is assigned an IP address. Go to a site like What's My IP and your IP address will be displayed to the world. It will look like 11.22.33.444 or 111.22.33.444. You will also see details associated with your IP address, like your ISP name and even your approximate location. If you connect by using a different residential IP address as a proxy, your public IP information will appear as any specific residence using that IP when you browse.
What is a Datacenter Proxy?
A datacenter proxy is different in that it is not owned by your ISP. It acts as a "wall" between you and anyone trying to see your IP over the network.
Instead of seeing your real IP address and all of its associated identifying information, someone trying to see your real IP address will see the datacenter proxy address and information associated with the company that owns the datacenter. You can think of a datacenter proxy as a way to mask your real IP address and its associated identifying information, but not a complete replacement for a residential IP.
What is the difference?
If you’re using a new connection just to mask your real IP address, then you might be wondering what the point is of using a residential IP as a proxy. After all, you only need a different IP address to fool websites into thinking you’re someone else – right?
The problem is that people try to spam popular sites day in and day out, and they know they need a different IP address to get around the site's filters, so they often turn to datacenter IPs because they're easier to get in bulk than residential IPs.
So, almost all users with bad intentions are using data center IPs, and there are legitimate users who use data center IPs. For example, many corporate offices let their employees use them.
But overall, only a very small number of legitimate users use data center IPs. This combination means that a large portion of users with data center IPs will attempt to access the site for spam or malicious purposes. So while you can browse the web using a data center IP, you will most likely be subject to additional scrutiny by the site's security system.
Rest assured, security systems do have the ability to tell if you are using a datacenter IP. First, they will take the IP information and see if you are using a datacenter gateway (VPN or proxy).
If you are, you will immediately be placed in a small group of users who will receive additional scrutiny. From there, some security systems may go a step further and try to determine whether you are using a VPN or a data center IP proxy by checking which ports are open. Most VPNs only have port 80 open, while data center IP proxies open multiple ports.
Typically, users choose VPNs for privacy reasons, as using a VPN encrypts traffic and protects users from attacks. But the only purpose of datacenter IP proxies is to mask your IP address – they do nothing for encryption – and they are usually much cheaper than buying in bulk. Therefore, most malicious users choose datacenter IPs, and website security systems can and will scrutinize residential IPs or VPN datacenter IPs more than they would residential IPs or VPN datacenter IPs. This is the biggest difference between the two.
If you are using a datacenter IP with an open port, the security system will be able to tell that you are, although it will not be able to tell what the real IP behind the proxy is, assuming you have used proper precautions and disabled browser extensions that may reveal your real IP.
There are also some other differences between residential and datacenter IP proxies:
Residential IP Proxy
1. More Legitimate. It's not particularly difficult to create hundreds of datacenter proxies yourself, and we even go into detail on how to do that further down the page. But getting hundreds of residential IP proxies is extremely difficult – because residential IPs are only assigned to residents. Therefore, security systems often consider residential IPs to be more authentic and legitimate than datacenter proxies. The reasoning goes along the lines of "if you haven't done anything wrong, then you have nothing to hide" (you have no reason to use a proxy).
2. Fewer providers and higher prices. Since it is very difficult to collect residential IPs that can be used as proxy connections, there are fewer providers who offer them, and getting a monthly subscription to access their pool is usually very expensive, although for some users a monthly subscription can sometimes be cheaper than a large monthly subscription for a data center IP proxy.
3. Sometimes blacklisted. Residential IPs are more trusted, but they are still vulnerable to abuse. Therefore, some security systems and databases still blacklist certain people. Having a residential proxy connection is better, but not perfect.
Data Center IP
1. Less legal, but still protective. As we've covered, websites can detect that you're using a proxy connection, and you'll be immediately censored when you log into your account because of spammers and other malicious users. However, the website can only state that you typically use a data center proxy.
Most proxies will completely mask your primary IP address. Therefore, it is better to use a clean datacenter proxy for each account than to use your real IP for each account.
2. There are many suppliers and the prices are cheaper. Since it is very easy to obtain a data center proxy, there are many providers to choose from, so the cost of a private data center proxy is usually only a fraction of that of a residential IP "proxy".
This article comes from online submissions and does not represent the analysis of kookeey. If you have any questions, please contact us
