What is a Backconnect Proxy?
Proxies are used for various purposes related to internet security, privacy, and methods of data collection such as web scraping. Simple residential proxies are useful enough to overcome virtual barriers set up by websites, but in some cases, one would be better off with backconnect proxies to make things more efficient. A backconnect proxy is defined as a proxy server that contains a pool of regular proxies, constantly switching between IP addresses that are used to connect to the website.
Since the proxy IP address that is sent to the website is regularly and automatically changed, picking one or another address from the set of proxies in the server, the website is less likely to notice too much activity. This makes using a backconnect proxy an easy option to better hide your actual IP address.
The difference between backconnect and regular residential proxies
The best way to understand what backconnect proxies are is by drawing a contrast between them and regular proxies. These regular residential proxies consist of a single proxy IP address that is used to hide and cover your IP address. Thus, instead of connecting to the website directly, your traffic would first be directed to a backconnect proxy server somewhere and only then to the website. This way from the webpage's point of view it seems that your activity is coming from another IP address – that of a proxy server.
Backconnect residential proxies are essentially the same but multiplied. Instead of using one proxy IP address, you would use an entire set of them, contained within a proxy network. They rotate the proxies that are used for your connection over specified periods of time or with every new request. For this reason, such proxies are also known as rotating proxies or rotating backconnect proxies.
It’s also important to note that backconnect proxies are not necessarily residential. Whether it is or not depends on the type of IP address it provides. Along with residential there can also be rotating datacenter proxies and mobile proxies.
Additionally, backconnect proxies automatically assign you a new IP address once the previous one gets banned. This makes it a very convenient choice for such purposes as web scraping.
How do backconnect proxies work?
The way backconnect proxies masks your IP address starts just like with the usual proxy servers. Your request is first sent to a proxy address and then to the website.
The difference is that with a backconnect proxy the address is within a larger proxy pool. Therefore, when the website sends back to you the requested information it goes through the same proxy. But when you make another request towards the website, it would first pass through a different proxy within the backconnect proxy network. And then the website once again provides you with the requested public information.
This process is repeated over and over as long as you are making requests. Thus, it is easy to scrape the web with a backconnect proxy, knowing that you don’t appear as the same IP address from the website’s perspective.
Pros and cons of using a backconnect proxy
As the difference between a regular residential proxy and a backconnect proxy is clear, let’s see what are the advantages and disadvantages of using the latter.
Pros
- Increased speed and efficiency. Backconnect proxies automatically switch to another proxy once and IP address is blocked. Naturally, this will enhance the speed of any procedure that requires requests to be sent to the website repeatedly. Therefore the efficiency of web scraping for data collection ar market research purposes will be a lot higher when using a backconnect proxy.
- Privacy protection. With backconnect proxies, the signal may be sent to various locations all over the world. And the website will receive requests from these locations. This allows you to hide your tracks better, thus adding additional layers of protection to your privacy.
- Limitless request. Websites tend to limit the number of requests an IP address might make. These rate limits are overcome with a backconnect proxy as it automatically rotates between proxy addresses within the network. Thus, you can make limitless requests without the fear of being banned.
- More secure. By hiding you better backconnect proxies also protect you from malicious content. Web crawling is a dangerous activity for your devices and IP address as you can get attacked with malicious content. With rotating proxies, you have many different IP addresses between you and dangerous content which help to increase your security.
Cons
- More expensive. As backconnect proxies utilize entire proxy networks, one can imagine that they cost more. Managed proxy servers might have additional features and be located on the other side of the world, which can also increase the price. Thus, quite naturally, the more you need from your proxy, the more it’ll cost you.
- Might have some speed issues. Although when everything runs smoothly, the best backconnect proxies are the faster and more efficient option, they're also more prone to speed issues. As you are constantly rotating from one proxy to another when making requests, you might experience inconsistencies in how fast the traffic between you, the proxy, and the target website is moving.
When should you use a backconnect proxy?
As the backconnect proxy is a more expensive option, it’s more cost-efficient to use regular proxies whenever it’s enough. But when is it not enough and rotating proxy servers should be considered?
The short answer is that it all depends on the scale. Regular proxies are enough for internet security when browsing the net and for some small-scale web crawling needs. But when you’re going to need a wholesale operation, backconnect proxies become a necessity. Here are some examples of such possible purposes that will require the entire proxy pool.
Web scraping
Naturally, when you scrape the web for information, you will be better of with a rotating proxy network than just one proxy. This will allow you to make multiple requests to the same website and better hide your activity from those that might want to ban or restrict it.
Social media automation
Rotating proxies can also be of much help with social media automation practices. Aside from increased security, it allows additional features, such as geo-targeting to work better. You can target particular social media profiles based on their geographic location and easily access geographically-specific social media content. Furthermore, social media proxies help to manage multiple accounts without being blocked.
Bots
On a related topic - social media bots are also more secure when using such proxies. Bots will automatically like/unlike, follow/unfollow and do similar tasks for you. This saves time but runs a risk of being banned or restricted on the social media platform. With rotating proxies, you can hide your botting better. Additionally, this increases security not only with social media bots but with those that can shop online for you, for example, sneaker bots.
Ad verification
Ad verification services are set up to crawl the internet and check if the correct ads of their clients are displayed on the websites. They verify that the ad is what was ordered and was not hacked by someone else to advertise without payment. If you’re providing such a service, you also run a risk of being banned by the website, as it’ll get a lot and constant requests from you. Rotating proxy networks helps to hide the scale of your requests.
Web testing
When running the tests to ensure the best user experience of your web applications, you need to test them from many different locations. Rotating proxy servers help to ensure that your web testing will be well-rounded and lower the probability of something important being missed. Checking the operationality and user experience of your web apps from various locations and doing that efficiently allows increasing the productivity of your web testing efforts.
Summing up
Regular residential proxies are all you need for your daily internet security and privacy. However, the more you want to do online that involves making multiple requests from your IP address, the better you need to hide it. Additional features that come with backconnect proxy servers increase what you can do online without the fear of being banned, suspended, or delayed. Thus, you should consider backconnect proxies when increasing the scale of your online operations.
