Have you heard of datacenter proxies but not sure about what they are, how they work, or why you need to use them? In this article, I’ll explain everything you need to know about datacenter proxies.
With online privacy and safety going through a lot of challenges these days, everybody is looking for a solution to keep their most sensitive data safe. One of these solutions is using datacenter proxies for enhanced Internet anonymity.
Technological advancements have made the last couple of years be a pretty lucrative period for hackers and cybercriminals. Our most sensitive data, including personal and financial information, is at risk whenever we surf the Internet. So, it’s about time to learn how to better protect ourselves from the current cybersecurity risks that are out there in the digital world.
The good news is that datacenter proxies give Internet users an extra layer of security between their data and ill-intentioned people on the web. What’s more, they also have plenty of other helpful use cases. But, first, let’s dig deeper into what datacenter proxies are, and we’ll later discuss all their use cases.
Datacenter Proxies Explained
Datacenter proxy servers act as a gateway between your system and the Internet. It separates end users from the websites they access when surfing the web. in other words, a proxy server acts as an “intermediary” between Internet users and the web pages they visit.
There are three types of datacenter proxies:
- Private: These are datacenter proxies with dedicated IP. In other words, the user gets an IP address that they use alone for the given time or for a certain domain.
- Shared: More than one person uses the same proxy server at a time.
- Public: Public proxies are also known as free proxies. However, they are not recommended for any serious use because they don’t provide any form of secured protection in most use cases.
Here’s the thing: when your computer connects to the Internet, it uses a particular and unique IP address. You can think of this address as an address similar to your home’s street address. This IP helps tell incoming data where to go and marks outgoing data with a return address for other devices or systems to authenticate.
Now, datacenter proxies are useful precisely because they help you mask your IP address for certain reasons, mainly to help you keep your anonymity when surfing the web. For example, if you access a website from your computer, the website won’t see your real IP address but the address the server displays, which is different from your actual address.
Since your IP address is anonymous location-wise, you get plenty of benefits such as the ability to view geographically restricted sites, surf the Internet without any risk, and even purchase goods for smaller prices.
But, before we analyze the use cases of datacenter proxies, let’s see what advantages they have.
The Benefits of Datacenter Proxies
Why should you use datacenter proxies as a solution to keep your online privacy safe? Well, you can use datacenter proxies because of their many advantages, including:
- They are affordable:- Datacenter proxies are a really inexpensive method to maintain your anonymity online as they are usually shared between many users, so the proxy provider can split the costs and lower the price for the service. (You can use a private datacenter proxy if you want to be the only one using the server, but that can cost you more).
- Fast connection speed:- Datacenter proxy servers are designed to support connections with countless users. For this reason, you can expect a very high-bandwidth when surfing the web using datacenter proxies.
- They are multi-purpose tools:- Datacenter proxies have plenty of use cases, from keeping you safe online to providing access to geo-restricted content.
Most Common Use Cases of Datacenter Proxies
What can you use datacenter proxies for? Plenty of things!
These services are multi-purpose, allowing you to complete a lot of things online, safer, and more advantageous. Here’s how they can help you:
Staying Anonymous Online
We’ve already discussed this one, but since this is the primary purpose of a proxy server, it is worth mentioning again. By using a datacenter proxy, your IP address is hidden every time you surf on the web from the websites you visit. Websites won’t be able to track you back because when you access them, it is not your real IP address they are seeing.
Social Media Management
Datacenter proxies are also used for managing multiple accounts without getting banned from social media platforms.
When social media platforms detect the same IP address for several different accounts, they consider these accounts fake, and they ban the profiles. You can avoid this by connecting to a different datacenter proxy every time you log into a different account.
Get Access to Geo-Restricted Content
Whether you want to read the news in a certain country or even to access entertainment content such as Netflix or Amazon content, you can use datacenter proxies to get around the geo-restrictions.
Since your real IP will appear differently to the website or platform, you can access the geo-restricted content. All you have to do is to pick up the IP address of the proxy server placed in the location you need.
Access Websites Despite an IP Address Ban
Has your IP been banned from a website? Datacenter proxies can help you get around it and continue to access the site.
Datacenter proxies would allow you to bypass restrictions if your IP address was banned as they help mask your real IP. Thus, the destination website won’t be able to tell that it is you accessing the site.
Purchase Goods Online Cheaper
Online stores tend to set different prices for users from different locations, meaning that users from other countries may be seeing lower prices than you see from your location. To purchase goods online cheaper, you can change your IP address and pretend to be in another country. This way, you’ll see if there are lower costs for the things you want to purchase.
