What is a proxy?
In simple terms, when you are browsing the internet, a proxy is the intermediary between you from the rest of the internet.
When you are browsing sites without a proxy, all the requests that you make will be sent directly from you to the websites you are visiting. What this results in is a direct connection where your IP address and potentially other sensitive information are shared with the site you are browsing.
If you add a proxy into the mix, it will shield you by keeping your IP address and other information private. This works as all of your requests are sent via the proxy, meaning you are using the IP address of the proxy, not your own. The responses are also then sent to the proxy and forwarded on to you. Ultimately this results in giving you anonymity when browsing online without changing your experience.
So what is a mobile proxy?
A mobile proxy is exactly the same as a normal proxy, but instead of it being a traditional server, we use a mobile device such as a smartphone, tablet or dongle. These devices need to have access to the internet through mobile data networks, think (4G, 5G, etc). When you browse the internet through a mobile proxy, your IP will be replaced with the IP of the mobile device.
Mobile proxies are always backed by an actual physical device, this means you look like a resident of the selected region with a real local and untraceable IP address.
Unlike traditional server proxies, mobile proxies can have their IP rotated on demand or on a set schedule. This is because mobile proxies have full access to their mobile network's pool of IPs. A larger IP pool results in more unique IPs for you whilst you are browsing, which in turn results in the highest level of anonymity you can get when using a proxy.
Our mobile proxies can have their IP rotated on demand through an API, or on a set schedule as per your use case.
Why do mobile proxies exist?
Okay so now you know what they are, why on earth would we want to use a mobile proxy...?
In short, mobile proxies are much better than traditional proxies as the IP's that they use are the same as normal, everyday users. This means your IP is the IP of a real user of whatever sites you are browsing. This results in fewer (and less drastic) IP bans, high anonymity, and endless potential.
What can I use them for?
Mobile proxies are used for a wide range of different things, we attempt to cover some of them below, but for a more in-depth look at what mobile proxies can be used for, check out our mobile proxy use cases.
- Web scraping
Scrape search results, content, and prices from multiple sources without a chance of getting blocked.
- Functional testing
Test your websites or apps through the eyes of real users.
- Surfing the web
Stay anonymous online and get access to blocked resources by your ISP or geo.
- Social media management
Manage many social media accounts (and ad accounts) at once for your clients.
- And many more...
What does GridPanel offer?
At GridPanel we offer two mobile proxy solutions which are:
4G mobile proxies and 5G mobile proxies
Both our mobile proxy offerings come with the following guarantees:
- Automatic rotating IP pools
- 99.99% Uptime
- Fully dedicated hardware
- Unlimited data
- Completely anonymous
- Unbeatable IP reputation
The main difference between the two is the speed, one is accessing the 4G and the other is 5G, which is considerably faster, but we will cover that shortly!
Are mobile proxies fast enough?
The short answer is yes!
You can get excellent speeds with mobile proxies, especially 5G mobile proxies. The following are two different speed tests taken from our 5G proxies themselves.
UK - EE network
96Mbps+ download speed
UK - Three network
91Mbps+ download speed
As you can see, the speeds are more than fast enough to perform any of the use cases we mentioned above!
Let's recap
It is very clear today that the majority of people browse the internet via their mobile devices as they allow us to work on the go. This increasing usage further supports the fact that we need to secure said devices and the data that they exchange with the world.
Mobile proxies provide us with an excellent solution to these current and future data privacy and security problems.
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