Testing Mobile Proxy before Buying. What to Look At
- Apr 1, 2022, 2:45 PM
- 6 minutes
Businesses that moved to the webspace cannot imagine successful operations without proxies nowadays. It is possible to do web scraping, market monitoring, SEO tasks, location changes, website unblocking, account managing, etc. with the help of proxies. Besides, they give a high protection level and boost your anonymity.
However, there are tons of providers out there and not all of them stick to sound business practices. That is why it is always necessary to test proxies before buying them. Checking if they run properly and efficiently is obligatory for every business. Even if you feel that you lack certain technical experience to be a proxy checker, there are ways to test them easily and comfortably with the help of certain proxy tools.
Having read this article you will know how to test proxies, what characteristics and parameters you should pay attention to while testing and choosing proxies and what tools will be helpful with this task.
To start with you should clearly understand the answer to a question: what is a proxy address. Every device that is connected to the Internet has a unique Internet Protocol address or IP that contains certain data. When you request a website, it receives your IP and the data it carries. If you use a proxy, it meets your request halfway and changes your Internet Protocol address website to its own. The website you are interacting with sees the IP that belongs to the proxy only and cannot detect your real IP.
In such a way your identity is masked when you are surfing the Web. This anonymity feature is crucial for businesses as platforms block their accounts for different actions without which businesses cannot survive online. Also, many proxy platforms have location restrictions and proxies help to geo-target the needed countries.
If your proxy fails, you can get in trouble. Your real IP address website can leak and platforms will simply ban you. This is a horror dream of any person leading a business online as building up an account trusted by customers is a very hard, time-taking, and effort-consuming proxy way. Moreover, unreliable proxies can slow down your work and certain business tasks require a high speed of action.
Peculiarities of Proxy Testing. Aims and Tools
You can test the chosen providers with the help of proxy tester tools.
First of all, to check if your proxy is operating is possible through your browser. Usually, they are set up in browsers. It is possible to track their activities there too.
Secondly, a special proxy manager will help you to test proxies. If you use multiple accommodations and need to switch between them without spending effort, proxy managers will be very helpful.
Thirdly, there are IP checkers online that help to determine if your proxy works properly. Go to such a website and it will immediately show your IP address website and location proxy. You will also see the HTTP headers of the software you are currently using.
However, if you want more detailed testing you will need more advanced proxy tools.
Fourthly, IP location databases will be useful if you want to check your proxy. Certain websites use third-party Internet Protocol location databases. This helps them understand what kind of users access them and if they are real people. Such databases use their configurations to find out if the IP is residential or belongs to data centers.
Fifthly, you can come up with your software or script to test proxies. Using your proxy tester tool you receive more control.
What to Pay Attention to While Testing Proxies?
Even if you are not technically savvy, it will not be hard to become a proxy tester. Remember the three main parameters you need to look out for are:
- location availability;
- the proxy speed;
- the uptime.
Let’s discuss these parameters extensively.
Location
Location is a crucial parameter you need to check while testing proxies. If you need to request a UK-only website you cannot use the US, Canada, Australia, or other proxies. A UK proxy with a UK IP address is the only proxy that will help you. This works for any location.
Some providers claim that their products are hosted in a particular location, but during the testing, you can find out that they are not. It is always better to use checkers before paying for a service than to put blind trust in a proxy provider.
Speed
Some providers cannot afford high-end software and hardware equipment. As a result, their proxies are unreliable and slow. The slowest ones have shared proxies because they are being utilized by lots of clients.
If you require sneaker bot activities or web scraping tasks, the speed of proxy work does matter. Slow proxies are not your friends here. If your accommodation is slow you will have to spend several minutes on actions that usually take several seconds. Always scan the proxy speed to find out how fast it is. Your choice should stop at the fastest proxy options.
Uptime
If the provider has perfect locations for your needs and high speed, but its uptime is poor, better say goodbye to this provider.
Imagine, you are performing an action and your proxy’s connection falls off. If your accommodation goes offline your real IP address will leak along with the other private data you tried to conceal.
Your choice should fall at services that offer at least 99.5% uptime. Unfortunately, not all services provide real numbers and testing proxies with some minor task has to be on your “to-do” list. Having seen how it holds up with the time you will be able to decide if the service under testing is worth your attention.
Considering these vital parameters for proxies will help you to avoid many anonymity problems while surfing the web.
Signs of Reputable Proxy Providers
Knowing how to test proxies will help you to avoid various problems while using them. However, to make the area of your search for a perfect service match narrower, let’s discuss how to choose a reputable provider before testing it. This will save your time and anonymity efforts.
There are free and paid accommodations. Free providers cannot afford to buy and operating quality hardware and software. That is why the speed and quality of their proxies always suffer. Their uptime is low and the number of locations is poor. If you do not want to get banned, do not use free proxy accommodations for your business and even personal anonymity needs.
Paid providers give you certain guarantees and you can receive a refund in case their proxies fail. Check out if the chosen service offers free trials or promo tariffs. If yes, this is a sign of a reputable service. Each customer should have an opportunity to try the service before spending money on it.
Always pay attention to the quantity of proxies checker in the provider’s pool. Inquire about the availability and variety of locations around the globe. The more locations there are available, the better. Your service should offer decent uptime (at least 99.5%).
The anonymity proxies level should be high. You should be sure your data will not leak to third parties. The proxies should be quick as speed is essential for many business tasks. Go to the website for the proxy service!
Make sure the provider has a responsive customer support service that works 24/7 to resolve any possible issues.
If you want to test proxies that deliver on promises, try the OnlineProxy service that works 24/7. You can try them for free by taking a short survey. There are more than 130 million IP addresses in OnlineProxy’s pool. More than 150 countries are at your disposal and you can target even up to the city. These proxies are fast and anonymous.
In OnlineProxy you will find mobile proxies from all over the world with daily billing from $0.7 and IP rotation. Proxies are great for work tasks. We guarantee quality or refund money.