What Is a Backconnect Proxy and How Does it Work?
By now, you should know about web scraping and its legal issues. For a quick recap, web scraping is the process of extracting a large amount of data from a targeted source. Most websites say the data they display are public data, which means there are no actual liabilities in extracting them. But, some websites
By now, you should know about web scraping and its legal issues. For a quick recap, web scraping is the process of extracting a large amount of data from a targeted source. Most websites say the data they display are public data, which means there are no actual liabilities in extracting them. But, some websites do not work in such a manner. These websites take countermeasures to avoid being scraped. When you start scraping for a long period of time, the countermeasures of the website’s server kick in and detect your IP address. Once your IP is detected, it will definitely block it, so that you cannot continue web scraping. In such situations, proxy, especially backconnect proxy helps a lot.
In the upcoming section, we will see what a backconnect proxy is and how it works.
What Is Backconnect Proxy?
A backconnect proxy is simply a proxy server that contains a pool of rotating proxies. Once every connection request is made, it will automatically shuffle the proxies in the pool. This shuffle proxy is made available to users to mask their IP addresses to perform web scraping. Since all the proxies are rotating proxies and can deeply mask your IP address, it is difficult for the target website’s server to detect your internet activity. In our case, web scraping.
How Do Websites Block Your Activity Online?
Usually, websites block your activity by doing either of the following methods:
- Rate limits-blocking – Web scraping is a highly demanding task, meaning that, your IP address sends multiple requests to the target website to extract the data. In such a situation, the performance of the target website may reduce, to avoid those scenarios, the target website limits the number of requests allowed per IP address in a fixed period of time.
- Normal IP- blocking – This is the normal approach to blocking IP addresses. If you access the contents that are restricted in your country, you will get blocked by the target server. The most common example of geo-locked content is Netflix and Amazon Prime.
As mentioned, if you perform web scraping for long periods, you are vulnerable to getting blocked by the targeted website. To overcome this hurdle, a backconnect proxy is the best option.
When Is the Best Time to Use a Backconnect Proxy server?
Imagine the scenario in which you are required to scrap large data from a certain target. You need to send multiple requests to get the data, if not then your process will be very slow and inefficient. But sending multiple requests at a time will leave you vulnerable to getting blocked by the target website. Time is running out and your organization has invested a considerable amount of money and resources into this project.
To overcome those situations, your first step should be to mask your IP address, so that your target does not block you. The second step is to extract a large amount of data ethically in a short period of time. You have to be smart here, since you have already used more resources on this project. You should find a solution to satisfy both disadvantages. A backconnect proxy is the best solution. It helps to deeply mask your IP address because of the rotating proxy pool, and all the proxies have a high speed, which helps to efficiently extract data.
As mentioned, a backconnect proxy server uses the same proxy server pool. The residential proxies represent regular IP addresses, meaning that residential proxies represent the IP addresses provided by the ISP (Internet Service Provider). Residential proxies have all the same characteristics as the IP addresses provided by your ISP. In those situations, the targeted website will have a hard time detecting those IPs.
How Does Backconnect Proxy Network Work?
Backconnect proxies follow the same protocols as the normal proxies:
STEP 1: From the client-side, the proxy will send the request to the target server by masking your IP address.
STEP 2: The proxy carries the request and passes it to the residential proxy pool, then one of the proxies sends the request to the targeted website.
STEP 3: The target website checks for any proxies being used, since all residential proxies are represented as the standard IP address, which resembles the IP provided by the ISP. Once the scan is done, it should provide the requested data to the proxy.
STEP 4: The proxy returns to the client with the data, then goes back to the residential proxy pool.
STEP 5: The client makes another request, only this time, the request passes through another proxy in the pool, this way whenever you make a connection request to the proxy network, you can connect to a new proxy, which helps to carry out the request to the target website.
The loop will continue as long as the number of proxies are available in the pool. Once you get the data you can store it in any format. But usually, once the data is scraped it is stored in a database format, such as CSV or Excel spreadsheet.
FAQs:
1. What are the pros and cons of using a backconnect proxy?
2. What is meant by sticky proxy?
3. Is the sticky proxy server the same as rotating proxies?
Conclusion:
Web scraping is a highly demanding task, and it should be in every data scientist’s and analyst’s arsenal. Backconnect proxies are the best companion for web scraping. Most proxy providers do provide residential proxy pools, which can be used for the web scraping process. ProxyScrape provides datacenter proxies and a residential proxy pool. With 7 million residential proxies in the pool, unlimited bandwidth, and the ability to change the country with proxy rotation as you require, you can rest assured you can perform web scraping without any hindrances.