Whether you own an e-commerce website, manage multiple social media accounts, or are an individual weary of your confidentiality, proxies are definitely for you, and mobile proxies at that.
The term mobile refers to a mobile phone, a dongle, or a portable Wi-Fi router. On the other hand, proxies or proxy servers are components that act as intermediaries between your computer or internet-enabled mobile devices and the internet. Their work is to redirect web traffic by changing your IP address before connecting to a particular website. Thus, they provide an added layer of anonymity. A simple explanation is that a proxy is a software or application.
Mobile Proxies
It, therefore, follows that mobile proxies combine mobile hardware with proxy server capabilities – using a software or application – to redirect traffic to websites or the internet through an existing user’s mobile device. Suffice it to say that mobile proxies utilize mobile network operators’ (MNOs) IP network.
Further, how MNOs assign IP addresses is key to the success of mobile proxies, given that it enhances anonymity greatly. It is this anonymity that makes mobile proxies great for applications such as:
- Social media management
- Enhanced confidentiality for individual users
- Inflating or faking social media engagements
All this is usually with the guarantee that the mobile proxies will trick web servers into believing that all your logins, despite the different IP addresses, are from real users. But, there’s a caveat. Success is dependent on having a dedicated and reputable mobile proxy. This calls into question the use of free versions and, by extension, the best mobile proxies for the task.
Types of Mobile Proxies
Free Mobile Proxies
Free mobile proxies are also known as public mobile proxies. Such proxies don’t offer any privileges or guarantees that you’ll receive an IP address – they’re rarely available. After all, they’re free.
Free mobile proxy providers minimize cost through a set up that shares a single IP address among multiple users. Such IP addresses are readily available on the internet, which implies that using them may expose you to harmful malware or even hacking.
Additionally, the IP addresses that free mobile proxies use are more often than not already flagged as proxies by multiple web servers. In this regard, they’re already blacklisted and cannot accord a user the requisite anonymity.
Private Mobile Proxies
Private mobile proxies are the best type regardless of the task you intend to undertake with them. They work by dedicating a single IP address for every website. However, other users accessing other websites can use this IP address. Private mobile proxies are fast, safe, and provide the needed level of anonymity.
Owing to the disadvantages of using public/free mobile proxies – despite general advantages such as allowing you to change an IP address to a particular country – this article mainly highlights the benefits of private mobile proxies.
Benefits of Mobile Proxies
Fast Speeds
Mobile proxies have evolved with the advancement in technology. As such, most mobile proxies utilize 4G or LTE connections. In some cases, though, these proxies will connect to 3G if that’s what’s available in the chosen country.
When a mobile proxy pairs with a mobile device that’s running on 4G, then the connection is bound to be fast. The growing usage of 5G is bound to be a game changer for mobile proxy speeds.
Anonymity
MNOs assign new IP addresses regularly. In fact, depending on circumstances, e.g., heavy traffic or the location, the assignment can even be every 4 hours. This, therefore, implies that, with mobile proxies, which provide access to wireless ISP’s ever changing IP addresses, and, by extension, their IP networks, there’s an added layer of protection and anonymity.
As such, whether you’re accessing a torrent site or scraping data from a social media platform, you need not worry about your IP address being flagged as suspicious or your account being suspended.
Flexibility
Mobile proxies provide social media account managers with the flexibility they need to create and manage as many accounts as they can. Some even go a step further by availing automation tools that make account management a breeze.
Web Scraping
For any company, data and insight are the holy grail. Why? Because the information increases a firm’s ability to generate more leads, understand competition, and monitor campaigns. Given that businesses have now digitized operations, and virtually everything is over the web, web scraping has become an ideal tool to obtain the data and insight.
However, some websites thwart such efforts by blocking IP addresses that request a lot of data. This makes having a reliable mobile proxy a prerequisite for successful data access. Using the unique IP addresses, which are from real users, makes detection very hard.
Conclusion
Mobile proxies’ benefits are anchored on the anonymity and privacy that emanates from the use of real IP addresses provided by MNOs. Although the proxy providers charge a premium, especially for private mobile proxies, the benefits outweigh the costs. Mobile proxies are worth it.
