A VPN is something that we’ve written about numerous times here. They’re great and they will anonymise your browsing whilst also changing your location and getting around and location restrictions which may have been applied by streaming providers.
However, if you’re using a VPN to access things like that then you may find – sometimes – that you’re blocked. A lot of providers will look for VPN datacenter IP’s and will block them to prevent people from other countries accessing their systems and content.
Providers like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other sites will also flag you if you’re coming from an unexpected source, so you may find yourself flicking that VPN on and off to hop around the usual places that you visit.
If you want to have a “normal” home broadband IP address, you need a “normal” home internet connection. A VPN provider shows your IP as a slightly “abnormal” datacentre one, which can get picked up.
So if you want to appear to be elsewhere without getting blocked, you can choose a residential proxy. This is where you can basically appear to be on someone else’s WiFi / internet connection. It’s like going to a friend’s house and using their internet connection.
Services like Smartproxy offer random IP addresses from their pool of over 10 million locations. They’ve got over 195 countries or cities for you to choose from, meaning that you can create and manager multiple Twitter accounts (via bot software). You can also use Facebook bots, Instagram bots, social-media tools and market research software. For those doing price comparisons, data collection, brand protection, cyber security or simply checking that a website or an advert is displaying correctly in a certain location – this is the solution you need.
Whilst Smartproxy do datacenter proxies, it’s the residential ones that are proving popular. There’s no setup fee, no subnets and only real residential IPs which you pay for on a monthly subscription.
Setup is easy, with Chrome, Firefox, Safari and other browsers supporting it. You can also set it up in seconds with an Android or iPhone. All your requests will be routed through real desktop and mobile devices when accessing the web, avoiding blocks and cloaking. Use country and city level targeting with high quality residential proxies.