Research note
A Beginner’s Guide To Backconnect Proxy: What Is It And How Does It Work?
Acting as an intermediary between you and the web, a proxy is an excellent multifunctional solution that helps to hide your identity, enjoy higher security, as well as bypass certain restrictions. In the meantime, there are several scenarios where regular proxies turn out to be insufficient. In this article, we will discuss a backconnect (rotating) proxy that features advanced efficiency and reliability. We will take a closer look at its principles of functioning, use cases, and more. After reading, you will know why, when, and how to use back connect proxies.
Backconnect Proxy Explained
The core principle of a backconnect or rotating proxy’s work is best explained by juxtaposing it to the work of a regular proxy server. Now, let’s take a look at what this fundamental difference is.
How a regular proxy server works
Without going into details, a regular proxy server works as follows.
You have a request to a website.
The proxy server sends it through its own IP address.
The website responds to the proxy’s IP.
The proxy server returns the response to you.
You have another request to this website and the process repeats.
Let us imagine, you have more than one or two requests to the website. For example, you are doing price scraping and you would like to send 10k requests per second. Here is when you encounter a serious barrier in the form of a request per second limit. Under this scenario, it does not matter if the requests come from your IP or the proxy server’s one. The point is that they come from one IP and so the system identifies them as requests coming from a single user.
If a website has a maximum limit of 10 requests per second, the soonest you will be done with your 10k requests is in 16 minutes instead of the planned second. Needless to explain, this lag in time might be critical to a scraping project, especially a large-scale one. Besides, in the worst case, a website can ban the proxy’s IP for sending too many requests. Of course, the proxy provider will replace the banned proxy and, more than that, you can manually set it up to have a different proxy for a particular request. But what if you want the provider to deliver a truly seamless and smooth proxy performance? Well, here is when back connect proxies come into play.
How a backconnect proxy works
The mechanism of a back connect proxy’s work is largely similar to that of a regular proxy except that IPs from which requests are sent to a website are ongoingly rotated. So here is what it looks like:
You have a request to a website.
The proxy server sends it through its own IP address.
The website responds to the proxy’s IP.
The proxy server returns the response to you.
You have another request to this website and the proxy server sends it through a new IP.
Thanks to IP rotation, a proxy server “outwits” the website so that the latter thinks the requests are coming from different users. This helps to bypass the request per second limit and avoid bans.
Backconnect Proxy Functioning: Rotation And Proxy Pools
To better understand the details of a back connect proxy’s functioning, it is necessary to make sense of the following concepts: a pool, rotation, and a control layer.
Let’s say you have a hundred requests to a website. You forward them to a proxy server or, more specifically, to a software control layer. The latter has an entire pool of proxies at its disposal and determines which proxy to “assign” to each request. Depending on a wide range of factors, the control layer decides whether to use the same proxy for requests or whether it is time to rotate them and use a fresh proxy. By smartly managing the rotation of proxies in the pool, the control layer helps to ensure smooth and seamless processing of all incoming requests.
Backconnect Proxies: Major Use Cases
Now, where and when do you use backconnect proxies? After all, if you only need to bypass geoblocking for a single website, a regular proxy will be quite enough. The need for rotating proxies, in turn, arises in those situations where you send large volumes of requests to a website. But what are these situations exactly? Let us discuss each of them in detail.
Scraping
The first and the most obvious situation where rotating proxies come in handy is data scraping. Many websites have advanced antibot systems that identify suspicious traffic and ban IPs, from which this traffic is coming. If you need to scrape data from such websites, you must take precautions to ensure your activity looks normal to the system. The best way to do this is to send each request from a new IP or, at least, rotate IPs after certain time intervals, which is exactly what rotating proxies do for you.
SEO tasks
In addition to data scraping, there are plenty of SEO activities that imply sending multiple requests to a website. This includes researching keywords, pinpointing opportunities for backlink building, and tracking the rankings, to name but a few. Whatever your task is, you normally want to stay anonymous, avoid honeypots as well as bypass rate limits and geoblocking. The use of SEO tools in combination with rotating proxies allows for just that.
Social media
Managing social media is associated with, at least, two challenges. First, you need to create multiple social media accounts and so you need to have multiple IPs. Second, you want to save time and automate SMM tasks but most social media platforms have strict anti-automation policies. To “mask” your automated tasks and pass them off as organic you, once again, need access to multiple IPs. Efficient rotation of a proxy pool helps you address both challenges.
Using Backconnect Proxies: Key Positives and Negatives
So what are the key advantages and downsides to using backconnect proxies? As to the positives, they all are rooted in the rotation mechanism:
Better anonymity: In fact, all proxies are designed to hide your real IP and ensure anonymity. In the case of back connect proxies, tracing the real source of requests is even more difficult because each new request (or portion of requests) comes from a new IP. Most commonly, a proxy pool contains IPs from different locations creating an impression that requests to the website are coming from users from all over the world.
Better security: Whatever type of proxy you use, it contributes to the security of your online activities because the web interacts with the proxy and not with you directly. And when you use a pool of rotating proxies, there is a host of intermediaries between you and websites which is a good boost to the overall security.
Saved time: Rotation helps proxies bypass the request per second limit. As a result, you make as many requests as you need without regard for the limits or the risks of an IP ban. In this manner, rotating proxies make scraping projects more cost-effective.
Multiple use cases: A huge plus of a backconnect proxy is that it is multifunctional. As we’ve already seen, it is fit for large-scale scraping, various SEO tasks, and social media management.
As to the downsides to using proxies that rotate, they are not very numerous. Thus, here are the major negatives to expect:
Higher cost: The backconnect proxy solution is generally more expensive than classic proxies which makes it a poor fit for regular web browsing. This is, above all else, explained by the previously mentioned rotating mechanism. That is, the higher cost is charged for a greater speed, improved anonymity, and other benefits that these proxies offer.
Inconsistent performance: Because a pool consists of a large number of proxies, it is really difficult to ensure they all perform at the same level. Instead, you are more likely to deal with an assembly of heterogeneous proxies some of which are real fast, while others are unstable and slow performing.
How To Choose Backconnect Proxies?
Now that you know how rotating proxies work and can decide whether they are a good fit for your purposes, the question naturally arises as to how you choose a good proxy. In this section, we have collected seven key aspects to consider when selecting a back connect proxy solution:
Provider: The first aspect to look at when choosing a backconnect proxy is the provider. Top providers normally offer free trials for you to test the quality of their service. It is also a good idea to check customer feedback on independent platforms to find out more about the provider’s performance.
Price: One more aspect to consider is price. As was previously mentioned, a backconnect proxy is generally more expensive than regular proxies. So beware if you see that a company offers free rotating proxies: an unrealistic offer like this one is the telltale sign of a scam.
Proxy Pool: Check it with your provider how big and diverse their proxy pool is. Ideally, a good proxy pool will be large enough for effective rotation and will cover locations from all over the world. The provider should be able to explain the proxy rotation logic and how it contributes to the seamless functioning of the pool.
Browser profile management: A good backconnect proxy solution is, among all else, the one that is easy to manage. Make sure the selected proxy provider has a convenient self-service tool that allows for fast proxy setup and multi-profile management.
Extra features: It is likewise a plus if the selected system uses a throttling algorithm for this will enable you to adjust the connection speed based on the tasks and needs. Another feature to look for is built-in session management. It will allow you to manually maximize the efficiency of your pool.
FAQs
Are there free back connect proxies?
Well, in short, there aren’t. Rotating proxies are a paid service and, more than that, they are normally more expensive than regular proxy solutions. Trusted proxy providers often give you a free trial though.
Do I need special skills to use the backconnect proxy?
On the whole, the use of rotating proxies does not require special skills. Thanks to intelligent rotation algorithms, the risks of bans and other issues that undermine performance are minimal. Most proxy providers have user-friendly management tools that allow you to keep track of the proxies’ performance and adjust the settings according to your needs.
What is the difference between backconnect and rotating proxies?
The fundamental mechanism of back connect proxies is rotation. This is why backconnect and rotating proxies are just the same.
Do I need rotating proxies for regular web browsing?
It depends on the targeted tasks. Backconnect proxies come with a lot of advantages for web scraping, SEO activities, and social media management. If you simply need to hide your IP and/or bypass geoblocking, regular proxies will be perfectly sufficient for that.
Are backconnect proxies more effective than residential proxies?
This is a wrong dichotomy because backconnect and residential proxies are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Thus, it is often the case that the rotating pool is composed of residential proxies and sometimes, you can come across datacenter rotating proxies. In this manner, proxies are often both backconnect and residential.
Is it true that backconnect proxies are only required for large-scale scraping projects?
While backconnect or rotating proxies are, indeed, an excellent fit for scraping large volumes of data, this is not their only use case. Other areas, where they come in handy include SEO activities and tasks related to social media management.
Before Goodbyes
So here are the key things to know about back connect proxies:
Thanks to rotation, the backconnect solution features better anonymity, higher security, and enhanced guarantees against IP bans.
Because of their effectiveness, rotating proxies are generally more expensive than regular proxies.
The rotating proxy is, among all else, suitable to those who need to scrape large volumes of data and require a solution to bypass request per second limits and avoid bans.
Apart from data scraping, back connect proxies are a good fit for different SEO tasks and social media management.
When selecting a backconnet proxy solution, it might be useful to consider such aspects as the provider’s reputation, the price, the quality of the proxy pool as well profile management features available.