Keeping you safe online is not the only reason you should use proxies. But, to understand the importance of proxy servers for your online activity, you should first know what they are and how they work. Only then can you know what to look for when choosing the best proxy server for your daily needs.
Proxies are computers that function as intermediary servers, establishing a connection between your device and the Internet. It receives your web requests and forwards them to the website you want to access while using a different IP address. The proxy also receives the responses from the destination website and sends them back to your device so you can finally see the content you desire.
The proxy server doesn’t allow website servers to find out your true location because it uses a different IP address and location to connect you to websites. This way, your real IP address and location stay hidden, thus providing you with complete online anonymity and privacy.
The physical location of a proxy server can be anywhere. By using, let’s say, a Canadian proxy, your online activity will appear as if it’s coming from Canada.
People use proxies mainly for privacy concerns, and businesses use them for security and network purposes, but there are more benefits from using a proxy server. The most important ones include:
Privacy
Everything you do online is tracked, and you can see it by ads related to something you’ve Googled popping up for days afterward. This is not the only information websites record from their visitors. They track your online activity through your IP address.
A proxy, however, will hide your real IP address and show websites another IP address when accessing them. This is how it prevents websites from tracking your online activity, thus providing you with online privacy.
Security
Proxies encrypt your data before sending it to web servers, thus protecting your sensitive data and preventing hacker and malicious attacks. This way, a hacker will have to go through the proxy before accessing your private data, which is almost impossible and wards off most attack attempts.
But, the proxy server will provide you with security as long as it comes from a trustworthy provider. Otherwise, it may have the opposite effect.
Speed
Premium proxies don’t affect your internet speed, which can be really helpful when, for example, playing an online game or performing any other online activity that requires speed.
Avoiding geo-restrictions
Proxies can make it appear as if you’re located in a different region or country by giving you an IP address from that region. This will help you avoid geo-restrictions and access websites that are not available in your country, as well as circumvent website blocking by local governments.
Compiling Data
Businesses and marketers use proxies for web scraping. Since a bot performs web scraping, this activity can get you blocked from many websites. But, a proxy can help you avoid detection and bans by making your traffic look like real user traffic and not a bot.
Shopping
Proxies can help you purchase limited-edition items. Instead of waiting for the desired piece of clothing, sneakers, or any other item to go on sale and buy it before it sells out, you can use a bot to automatically make the purchase for you the moment it becomes available.
Since e-commerce websites don’t support bots, they can block your account or IP address for using a bot. With a proxy server, you can use a different IP for each request, thus making it appear as different users are making the requests and not a bot.
The three main types of proxy servers are residential, datacenter, and mobile proxies.
Use residential proxies for activities such as web scraping as they are almost impossible to detect and ban. These proxies are the most secure as they offer IP addresses coming from real devices.
Use datacenter proxies for activities that require speed, such as playing online games or accessing geo-restricted streaming content. These proxies are cheaper as they are usually used by more people at the same time and come from cloud servers instead of ISPs.
Use mobile proxies for social media activities, such as managing multiple accounts from the same device and avoiding ad fraud. These proxies are authentic and will give you a different IP address for each account, thus helping you to avoid bans.
Always use proxies from reliable providers such as IPRoyal. We offer high-quality, secure, and fast residential, datacenter, and mobile proxies. Avoid free proxies as they are unreliable and unsafe, so they can lead to data leaks and bans.
