What Are Residential Proxies?

Residential proxies are among the most commonly used proxy IPs. When looking for a proxy service one is often presented with the option of using this type of proxy. To make this choice correctly, one has to know what exactly makes a proxy residential and how they work. Thus, this article is dedicated to overviewing the most important proxy categories, with the most attention given to residential proxy servers. You can also find out more about this type of proxy at Metrow, who are experts in the proxy industry.

The main types of proxies

Proxies can be categorized in a few different ways. These categorizations divide proxies into groups based on particular features. A specific proxy server might fall into more than one of these categories.

Firstly, we can divide proxies by whether they are free or paid. One can find lists of free public proxies online. However, using public proxies is not advisable since the providers of such proxies tend to be malicious actors with their own agenda, which might be stealing your data.

Secondly, proxies can be categorized based on where the servers that host the proxy IPs are located. Here we have residential proxies, which are associated with the servers in residential addresses. They are distinguished from datacenter proxies, which come from large data centers that keep servers to host proxy IPs.

Additionally, there are ISP proxies that have the features of both data center and residential proxies. They are hosted by servers in a data center but due to a deal with an internet service provider (ISP), the IPs of these proxies seem residential.

Furthermore, there are rotating proxies that constantly rotate the IP address which is used to connect to the end server. Here is where the categories overlap since a proxy can be, for example, both rotating and residential.

There are of course many other types of proxies, but they are topics for other occasions. It is time to look closely at residential proxies.

What makes proxies residential?

As mentioned, one of the main differences in the types of proxies is what type of servers host the proxy. For best residential proxies, the hosting server is a real device associated with a particular residence. These proxies have the IP addresses that were issued to residential homeowners connecting to the internet.

This means that residential proxies provide real IPs that come from actual internet service providers, as opposed to data centers that generate their own IPs and host them in their servers. Thus, when routed through residential proxies, the traffic cannot be distinguished from that of an actual internet user.

Thus, if you are using a residential proxy, whenever you make a request to a website, your request is first filtered through another residential device. This changes nothing for you, but for the website it makes it seem as though that device and not yours is making the request.

The advantages of using residential proxies

There are many reasons why someone or some company might prefer residential proxies over other internet security tools. Here are some of the benefits of using this type of proxies that also help explain how they work and their main features.

1. They provide residential IP addresses. The most basic advantage of a residential proxy is that servers will see the connection as coming from a real device and not from a data center. Some sites might automatically block datacenter proxies because recognizing that the IP address is not affiliated with ISP, they will know that someone is using a proxy to connect. That might seem suspicious to a  website and lead to an IP ban. With residential proxies, there is no such risk, as the IP is that of an organic user.
2. Residential proxies have unlimited bandwidth. It means that there is no limit to the amount of information that can be transferred through such a proxy at a given time. This makes them perfect for procedures that require large volumes of data to be transferred. Thus, you can safely conduct your data extraction procedures knowing that the proxy will not limit you in how much data you can route through it.
3. Residential proxies come from all around the world. There are residencies with internet connections all over the world, even in the smallest and most remote countries. This means that at least potentially, they could be used to set up a proxy. Thus, whenever you need to bypass geographic restrictions of a particular region, you can safely assume, that there are residential proxies there to which you could acquire access.
4. They can protect you from malware. Residential proxies often come with the ability to scan networks for threats like viruses. Thus, when using a proxy you would be informed if there are security issues with the site you are trying to connect to. Your online security is therefore boosted by using residential proxies, giving you peace of mind as well as crucial protection.

Concluding remarks

In conclusion, residential proxies have many advantages, making them one of the top choices for internet anonymity and safety. The residential IP address that they provide you with is hard to identify as a proxy and thus unlikely to get banned. And the additional features of such proxies make them even more useful for large-scale automated procedures online.