What is a residential IP address, and why might your VPN …
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It’s everyone’s first lesson in how the web works: when you go online, your ISP gives you an IP address, and this identifies your location. It’s the address servers use when they route content back to ‘s not so often discussed is that IP addresses come in two different flavors: datacenter or residential. And that’s a pity, because in some situations this can be very, very you ever found hat your VPN wouldn’t unblock your favorite streaming platform, for instance? If you haven’t before, you may do one day – even the best Netflix VPNs are finding it more and more of a challenge to get around the popular service’s you’ve run into trouble with Google or some other site displaying warnings, because your IP address has been used by so many hackers it’s now blacklisted? This might be due to your IP type, and in this article we’ll explain why and what you might be able to do about is a VPN? Get back to basics with our explainerAnd what about free VPNs? Are they any good? Working from home? Then see the best remote desktop softwareWhat is a residential IP address? A residential IP is an address that is assigned from an ISP to a homeowner, and is associated with a single owner and to ipdata, for example, and after a few seconds, the site displays your IP address, its assigned location and your ISP name. A datacenter IP is an address which isn’t owned by an ISP. Usually, they’re connected to a cloud service provider and assigned to a does this matter? Hackers, scammers and anyone else looking to cause online harm will probably use a VPN or proxy service. These usually allocate datacenter IPs because they’re easier to buy in bulk (and cheaper), and when others notice the hacks and scams, they’re more likely to be blacklisted. And that means regular VPN users might suffer, sidential IPs (with fewer users and less chance of being linked to serious lawbreaking) look squeaky clean by comparison, and are far less likely to cause you trouble. Although you can still run into problems… but more on that later. (Image credit:)What type of IP address do I have? Detecting your type of IP address isn’t a 100% exact science, but websites have various options. The best way to explore these is to try them for to ipdata and by default the site checks your own IP address. You can test any other IP you like by typing it in the box and clicking the ipdata report appears, scroll down to the ASN (Autonomous System Number) section. In our test, this included the details “name: British Telecommunications PLC”, “domain: ” and “type: isp. ” The report got it right, as this was a residential, we connected to ExpressVPN and tried the ipdata test again. This time the ASN details included ‘name: “UK-2 Limited”‘, ‘domain: “”‘ and ‘type: “hosting. “‘ The site correctly recognized this was a datacenter IP, and that we were connecting through a web a site wants to block you, this looks like an easy first step to figuring out if you’re a regular home user, or if you might be connecting via a I change my IP address type? If you find your VPN doesn’t unblock as many streaming sites as you’d like or IP blacklisting seems to be causing you trouble, then choosing a service with a residential IP might make all the up for Windscribe, buy its Static IP addon and the company assigns you the same IP every time you log in. Opt for a datacenter IP and you’ll pay around $2 a month billed annually, choose a residential IP and it’s $8 a month on top of your regular subscription prices. Locations include USA, Germany, UK, France, Canada and Switzerland. If you think that’s expensive, it’s really not. A service like TorGuard asks a chunky $14 extra a month for a residential IP, and only offers locations in Los Angeles, Dallas and price is top priority then there’s always Hola, which is free in its basic form and gets you residential IPs by default. You’ll share some system resources with other Hola users, though, and although it might work as a VPN for streaming, we wouldn’t recommend it for anything privacy-critical. (Image credit: Windscribe)Are residential IPs worth the money? One very obvious problem with signing up for a residential IP is you only get one. A Dallas IP might help you unblock US Netflix, say, but it can’t get you when using a VPN with BBC providers might impose their own restrictions, too. TorGuard’s residential IPs don’t allow torrents, and despite their high price, the company has a stern warning about to expect: “We can’t guarantee these IP’s will work for any services outside of streaming networks – they are not designed for anything other than streaming or general browsing. “A new issue arrived in August 2021 when Netflix began blocking residential IPs, as well as datacenter addresses, if they were associated with a VPN. That’s reportedly also limited Netflix access to hundreds of thousands of legitimate users, which won’t do much for the company’s image. But if it sticks with this approach, and other platforms follow, it could soon become much more difficult to unblock your favorite streaming you absolutely must try to access a region-locked site, and nothing else works, buying a residential IP might still be worth a try. But don’t sign up for a long contract until you’ve tried it out and you’re happy with the out our list of the best VPN services
Mike began his career as a lead software developer in the engineering world, where his creations were used by big-name companies from Rolls Royce to British Nuclear Fuels and British Aerospace. He now covers VPNs, antivirus and all things security for TechRadar, although he still has a secret love of quirky open-source and freeware apps which find brand new ways to solve common problems.
The Ultimate Guide To Buy A Proxy And Buy IPs – Bright Data
A guide to help you navigate through the various proxy types, what they are and buy IPs that are suitable for you
27-Feb-2020
You know you need to buy a proxy or an IP, but what does that mean and why? Do I require a public IP, dedicated IP, static IP, country IP, a cheap IP, residential IP – the list goes on and with each IP type comes pros and cons.
If you want to buy IPs, this guide is here to help you navigate through the various proxy types, what they are and buy IPs that are suitable for you – so let’s dive in.
Jump directly to:
What is a Public IP Address?
Why Buy an IP Address from a Specific Country?
How Can You Buy an IP Address?
What is a Dedicated IP Address?
Why Buy Static IPs?
How to Buy a Residential IP
How to Buy a Static residential IP
How to Buy a Mobile IP
How to Buy a country Specific IP
Similar to a mailing address, a public IP address allows requests to be sent from your computer with a return address so sites can respond to you.
Requests basically ask a site to show its homepage and product offerings and the site responds by providing the information.
The IP address itself relays information about the user in regards to the country the request is coming from and other relevant details to ensure the right language and pricing are displayed. When buying an IP you are technically leasing it from one of three sources an ISP (internet service provider), proxy provider or data center farm.
The most common reason is due to geoblocking, which is when sites use the IPs geographical location to limit specific internet content.
If you are looking to compare proxies prices in different countries, are trying to conduct accurate market research, want to test your site from other parts of the world and more, you would be required to buy an IP address from the specific country of interest. However, if you need to verify advertisements or something that is more sensitive to location, then it would be in your interest to purchase city-specific IPs.
If you are looking to buy a specific country IP, Bright Data is the only proxy network in the world to offer residential IP’s in every country and every major city around the world. Our network covers 195 countries and over 26, 000 cities.
It is easy to buy an IP from multiple sources. A residential IP can be purchased from an ISP such as AT&T, Xfinity or Verizon, a proxy service such as Bright Data offering multiple IP types, or a data center IP – a machine-generated IP purchased from a data center farm.
This connection, when derived from an ISP, is referred to as a residential IP and ISP’s tend to impose limitations in terms of one IP per household.
This IP cannot be changed or rotated for another using the ISP service provider. Lastly, an IP address can also be acquired through your cell phone service provider, this 3G/4G connection is referred to as a mobile IP.
Proxy services commonly have multiple product offerings including many IP types. Proxy providers differ in the types of IPs they offer, the number of IPs available and types of the settings they provide.
It is important to find a reputable provider to guarantee the quality of the IP addresses purchased, so read reviews about proxy services before making a decision.
A dedicated IP address is a unique internet protocol IP address. It is an IP that can be used for hosting an account or website.
A dedicated IP allows you to do more with your server such as host your own SSL certificate and offer more security as this IP is used exclusively by you.
This provides the ability to control the traffic entering the site and maintain a high level of performance which is necessary with high-volume traffic domains.
Dedicated IP addresses are also used for FTP or File Transfer Protocol which allows clients to download files from the server.
A static IP is an IP address that does not rotate. A static IP is needed when devices such as a server, printer or wireless camera are connected to it. These IPs are useful for managing accounts or filling out forms where an IP rotating can cause issues.
The alternative is a rotating proxy also referred to as a dynamic IP and will rotate between IP addresses based on specific parameters such as a certain number of requests, a certain time frame or both.
Residential IPs are leased from an ISP and are the same IP type as the one you most likely use at home, where you call a service provider and pay a monthly subscription fee.
These IPs are the strongest type of IP as they have all the characteristics of a real IP. When purchasing a residential IP the reputation of your proxy provider is important as how they acquired the IPs is directly related to their performance and legality. Begin by choosing the specific location you require and if the provider offers them. Then consider how many IPs you require and the overall bandwidth you may need.
Most residential packages due to their continuous rotation do not charge by IP but by overall bandwidth used.
If you want to buy a Residential IP, we provide the most advanced residential proxy service offering the fastest and largest real-peer IP network in the world.
A static residential IP is a non-rotating IP, leased from an ISP for commercial use.
Residential networks naturally rotate as they are providing access to existing user’s IP addresses.
When the owner accesses their IP, the IP will automatically rotate.
A static residential IP does not rotate as it is owned solely by you and is an IP that is not being used by a real owner like its rotating residential counterpart.
Static IPs are perfect for account management or when you want to make a purchase or fill out a form due to their static nature.
Static IPs are normally purchased per IP and specific targeting options may come with a price per gigabyte as well.
A mobile IP is a 3G/4G connection or how your phone connects to the internet when you are not on wifi.
These IPs are needed for actions that are mobile-specific such as accessing popular applications, verifying mobile advertisements and ensuring the performance of online assets on a mobile interface.
To purchase a mobile IP, begin by finding a mobile provider with your country and geo of interest.
Next, if you require 3G or 4G specifically, ensure these options are available.
Mobile IPs can be offered with carrier targeting.
If this is a desired feature, make sure the provider offers the specific carriers you need. Mobile IPs, similar to residential IPs, are normally offered in a rotating network, meaning they are charged by bandwidth and not per IP.
Location-based limitations are commonplace on the internet and this is where country and city IPs dominate. To purchase one, first find a reputable dealer to guarantee the IP is derived from your location of interest. IPs can be provided with country, city and even carrier resolutions.
You want to make sure your provider offers the specific targeting you require and the locations you need.
Make sure to clarify if the provider has not only the location but also the IP type you need in that location.
Confirm the availability of these IPs and check how they are priced. Is it in your interest to pay by bandwidth with endless rotation? Or is it more suitable for you to purchase one IP with unlimited bandwidth?
Once you understand the basics of IPs and how they work it is easy to figure out what you need. If you are still unsure of the type of proxy you require, speak to a proxy expert who can understand what you are trying to accomplish and provide the best solution for you and your budget.
Rachel Hollander | Content Marketing Manager
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What Are Residential Proxies And Why Do You Need Them?
A proxy is crucial for a better data collection. Learn how Rotating Residential Proxies can help you maintain your competitive advantage
24-Oct-2019
Residential proxies allow you to choose a specific location (country, city, or a mobile carrier) and surf the web as a real-user in that area. Proxies can be defined as intermediaries that protect users from general web traffic. They act as buffers while also concealing your IP address. Proxies are alternative IP addresses assigned to users by the provider.
All the user’s search requests are channeled via the proxy IP to the proxy server then to the resource server. This way, the user’s activity is concealed and identity remains anonymous.
How residential proxies work
Residential proxies essentially route your internet traffic through an intermediary server. The proxy server assigns you an alternative IP through which all of your server requests are channeled.
Note that the alternative IP address assigned, belongs to a real device. When you make a search request, it is conveyed to the resource server via your residential proxy. This way, your real IP is concealed, and sites perceive your activity as that of any other regular user.
Depending on the provider, an ideal residential proxy package affords the option of targeting countries, cities and all requests should be HTTPS encrypted for security.
So, what are some uses of residential proxies?
Residential IPs are genuine and more trustworthy compared to other types of proxies. Depending on your browsing needs, one can use residential proxies for different purposes. Here are some uses of residential proxies you may want to consider.
Ad verification
This is a very common use of residential proxies as they provide the means of checking and verifying ads displayed on your pages allowing you to recognize and block suspicious ads. Without adequate AD verification, your competitors may use devious means to damage your brand reputation.
It is advisable to choose a residential proxy provider that is very easy to use. The right platform should enable you to choose residential or mobile IPs for accurate ad tracking, media monitoring, and content compliance. All these are reasons to consider residential IPs for your ad verification.
Web scraping
Internet marketing goes far beyond casual ads and social media posts. You’ve got to study your competitors and learn their ways. The best way to access your competitor’s info is by web scraping. Web scraping with residential proxies is possible because they support mass scraping by allowing you to continuously rotate the IPs. It is important to note that data center proxies can also be used for web scraping. Are you confused about data center IP proxy? Learn from this post. However, they are best suited for use on a much smaller scale. If you want to do large scale scraping on Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other giant sites, residential proxies are the best.
Market price monitoring
To keep your client’s coming, it is necessary to monitor and comply with the market pricing trends. You don’t want to overprice your products and scare away potential clients or underprice and get customers doubting the quality. With residential proxies, you will be able to leverage sales intelligence tools to give you timely market price updates.
The data gathered by your sales intelligence software should be analyzed appropriately. If not done appropriately, you are likely to end up with the wrong pricing info, which can be very damaging to your business sales efforts. Overall, residential proxies make it possible for you to use different sales intelligence software. With that info, it is possible to do price monitoring, comparison, and analysis to come up with an acceptable price for your products.
Accessing sneaker sites
Shoe sites are often tightly monitored. This is because of identity theft, design copying and purchase limitations that are rife in the industry. Even so, it is still possible to access all the information you may require from these sites. Residential proxies provide ad verification in an excellent way to access sneaker sites. Sneaker proxies are overrated.
In truth, sneaker proxies can be data center IP proxies. However, with your shoe bots, sneaker proxies are still blocked by sites like Nike, EastBay, and Supreme Shoes. The way to get around this problem is by using residential proxies. They are trusted and less prone to blacklisting by popular shoe sites.
Accessing ticket sites
When it comes to scraping ticket sites, there’s no better way than using residential proxies. They will grant the access you need to easily compare ticket prices across different providers.
Many different ticket proxies are available, the problem with these is that they are mostly data center proxies. Data center IPs are easy to identify and tickets sites easily notice and ban users of these IPs. Most sites trust residential proxies, ticket sites included. Use them to access all the info you want from different ticket providers.
Internet marketing
This is a comprehensive platform. Site owners are always looking for ways to get ahead of their competitors. In such competitive settings, the best way to survive is by studying the ways of your competitors. Harness the power and potential of residential proxies to maximize your marketing potential. Make use of ads automation, social media campaigns, and email automation to improve your market reach.
SEO content complianceResidential proxies support different SEO tools. The platform supports a whole lot of tools besides Scrapebox and Xrumer. Appropriate onsite SEO improves your site’s traffic and leads. By scraping competitor sites, you get info about their keywords and sources of traffic.
You can also tweak your site contents to support multiple languages. Link building to and from an authority site is also crucial. With the right tools, the residential proxy platform allows you to create meaningful links for your website to flourish. You also get to analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of previous links. There are different audit and crawling tools you can use for such tasks allowing you to optimize your site to improve its performance.
Social media management
There’s no second-guessing the power of social media in modern web marketing. With residential proxies, it is now possible to create multiple social media accounts and manage them seamlessly.
What to consider before buying Residential Proxies
BudgetResidential proxies are often very expensive. Nevertheless, you can always find a better deal. All you need to do is compare prices between providers.
Purpose and use
Why do you need residential proxies? This is a very pertinent question. It is for basic security and small scale scraping, then think again. Maybe you don’t need residential proxies. Datacenter proxies might as well be what you need. On the other hand, if you want a proxy package for large scale scraping, anonymity, and security, then you need residential proxies.
Always strive to know why you need residential proxies. It is not prudent to spend so much while maybe you could do just fine with a cheap shared proxy package. This also applies when buying different residential proxy packages.
Compatibility with automation tools
Such as for SEO, if you are into this for site optimization, then you better check and confirm that the residential proxy package supports SEO tools. Be sure to verify that prior to purchasing
Site unlockingResidential proxies make it possible to stream content from geo-restricted sites without ever being blocked or flagged. Some providers may have blocked IPs, check and verify the package before making a payment.
That is it for this round-up of residential proxies. This post is meant to help you understand residential proxies and why you need them.
John McHenry | Founder of, Data analyst and Web developer
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Frequently Asked Questions about residential ip address
How do I get a residential IP address?
A residential IP can be purchased from an ISP such as AT&T, Xfinity or Verizon, a proxy service such as Bright Data offering multiple IP types, or a data center IP – a machine-generated IP purchased from a data center farm.Feb 27, 2020
What is residential IP proxy?
Residential proxies essentially route your internet traffic through an intermediary server. The proxy server assigns you an alternative IP through which all of your server requests are channeled. … This way, your real IP is concealed, and sites perceive your activity as that of any other regular user.Oct 24, 2019
What is my houses IP address?
If you’re connected to the local network through Wi-Fi, the active IP address appears under the Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection section of the ipconfig output. If you’re connected by an Ethernet cable, the address appears under Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection.Jun 25, 2021
