Proxies for Python

We’ve determined that Python is a high-level programming language that you can use for various purposes. So why exactly do you need proxies?

A proxy is a server designed with the sole purpose of masking your actual IP address and location. How does this happen? Depending on the situation, a proxy will handle all your incoming and outgoing internet traffic while using its own IP address or a pool of proxy addresses. This has a wide range of benefits as we will see later below.

Proxies are not mandatory for Python. You do not need these tools when you write code on your PC. Once you decide to write web-based applications, proxies can help significantly.

For instance, you may be using Python for web scraping. In such a situation, a proxy is an absolute necessity. Why? Most websites ban web scraping tools upon detection. The numerous requests tend to lead to server overload. More importantly, many websites have anti-scraping measures to prevent visitors from automated data gathering. Therefore, for your web scraping tool designed using Python, you need to implement a series of IP addresses provided by proxies that are rotated with every few requests. That’s the only way to ensure your web scraping operation runs without interruptions.

Rotating IPs are the most suitable option for Python. So, how exactly do you use them? The code below will show you how to rotate proxies in Python 3.

How to send requests using a proxy

import requests

proxies = {

‘http’: ‘ http://10.10.1.10:3128’ ,

‘https’: ‘ http://10.10.1.10:1080’ ,

}

requests.get(‘ http://example.org’ , proxies=proxies)

Rotating requests through a proxy pool

import requests

from lxml.html import fromstring

def get_proxies():

url = ‘ https://IPRoyal.com ‘

response = requests.get(url)

parser = fromstring(response.text)

proxies = set()

for i in parser.xpath(‘//tbody/tr’)[:10]:

if i.xpath(‘.//td[7][contains(text(),”yes”)]’):

#Grabbing IP and corresponding PORT

proxy = “:”.join([i.xpath(‘.//td[1]/text()’)[0], i.xpath(‘.//td[2]/text()’)[0]])

proxies.add(proxy)

Keep in mind that the proxies you use might fail to work. For a reliable scraping setup, it’s essential to use premium proxy services from providers you can trust, such as IPRoyal.

Using proxies with Python requests is not complicated. You only need to stick to the procedure below, which will work just fine.

Import the requests package in Python Create a proxies dictionary that defines the HTTP and HTTPS connection Create a response variable that will use any of the request methods. Below is a sample code.

import requests

proxies = {

   ‘http’: ‘ http://proxy.example.com:8080’ ,

   ‘https’: ‘ http://secureproxy.example.com:8090’ ,

}

url = ‘ http://mywebsite.com/example’

response = requests.post(url, proxies=proxies)

Your choice of proxy will depend on your needs. Standard options include residential and datacenter proxies. IPRoyal offers robust solutions created with web scraping in mind. With countless satisfied clients all over the world, we can guarantee to meet all your needs. Get in touch today to learn how our proxies can complement your data-gathering solutions!