Akamai
Akamai Bot Manager protectionOne of the strictest anti-bot systems out there. Protects banking, corporate sites and parts of e-commerce. Even premium residential typically delivers a 65-80% success rate against Akamai.
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glossary
Glossary of proxy and scraping terms
Industry jargon explained in plain English: residential, ASN, fingerprint, KYC, sticky session, CGN, JA3, anti-detect and ~50 more. Useful for newcomers and for anyone talking to a provider's support team.
A
Anti-bot
antibot system protectionSoftware systems that detect automated traffic: Cloudflare, Akamai, PerimeterX, Datadome, Imperva. They analyse headers, fingerprints, TLS handshakes, behavioural patterns. The harsher the anti-bot, the more expensive the proxy you need (residential/mobile instead of datacenter).
Anti-detect browser
toolingA specialised browser that builds a unique browser fingerprint per profile — Multilogin, Dolphin Anty, Adspower, GoLogin. Used for multi-account work in combination with mobile proxies.
API rotation
technicalChanging the IP address by calling a separate API endpoint (rather than rotating on a timer or per request). Lets you rotate programmatically — for example on receipt of an HTTP 429.
ASN
Autonomous System Number networkA unique identifier for a network on the internet (e.g.
AS16509 for Amazon AWS, AS6939 for Hurricane Electric). Anti-bot systems look at the ASN of an IP: if it belongs to a data centre, that's a bot signal. Residential ASNs (Comcast, Vodafone, BT) look natural.B
Backconnect proxy
typeAn entry-point proxy that automatically routes your traffic through a rotating pool of IP addresses. The standard for residential: you connect to
gate.provider.com:7777 and traffic exits from many different IPs.Bandwidth
billingThe volume of data transferred through a proxy. Measured in GB. Most residential providers bill per gigabyte ($1-10/GB); mobile dedicated ports usually bill per port without a bandwidth cap.
Bot score
fraud score protectionA numeric anti-bot rating — how bot-like a request looks (0-100, higher = more suspicious). Services such as IPQS expose a bot score for any given IP.
C
Captcha
protectionA "human or bot" test: reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha, Cloudflare Turnstile, FunCaptcha. Solved through services like 2captcha or Anti-Captcha (~$1-3 per 1000 captchas).
Carrier-grade NAT
CGN, CGNAT networkA technology where a mobile operator allocates a single public IP to hundreds or thousands of subscribers. That's why mobile proxies are nearly impossible to ban — banning the IP would block thousands of real users. The key advantage of mobile proxies.
Cloudflare
protectionThe most widespread anti-bot and CDN. Protects ~25% of the internet. Several tiers: Cloudflare WAF (regular), Bot Management (paid), Turnstile (the new captcha as of 2024).
Concurrent connections
technicalNumber of simultaneous connections through a single proxy port. Limits are typically 50-200 on residential, 10-100 on mobile. Going over results in throttling or timeouts.
Crypto payment
billingPaying for proxies in cryptocurrency (USDT TRC-20, BTC, ETH). Minimal KYC, fast transactions, no chargebacks. The standard for affiliate marketers and UA/RU teams.
D
Datacenter proxy
typeProxies with IPs from server centres (AWS, Hetzner, OVH). Cheapest ($0.5-2/GB) and fastest, but easily detected by anti-bot systems via the ASN.
Datadome
protectionOne of the toughest anti-bot services — focuses on TLS fingerprinting (JA3) and behavioural analysis. Even premium residential delivers 50-80% success rate.
Dedicated proxy
typeA proxy on a private IP that only you use, as opposed to a shared one (where the IP is shared between customers). Better fraud score and full control over the IP's reputation.
DPA
Data Processing Agreement legalAn agreement between data controller and data processor under GDPR. Enterprise providers (Bright Data, Oxylabs) offer DPAs for compliance-ready projects.
E
Endpoint
technicalThe connection point to a proxy. Format
host:port, e.g. gate.smartproxy.com:7000. A single provider may have dozens of endpoints for different geos and modes.F
Fingerprint
browser fingerprint protectionThe combination of ~30-50 parameters that identify your browser: Canvas, WebGL, AudioContext, fonts, timezone, screen resolution. Used by anti-bot systems to track you across sessions even from different IPs.
Floating IP
technicalAn IP that changes automatically within a defined range (usually within a single ASN). Less stable than dedicated, but more stable than rotating.
G
Gateway
technicalAn entry-point server for a proxy pool. You connect to the gateway, which routes traffic through an appropriate IP from the pool.
GDPR
General Data Protection Regulation legalThe EU regulation on personal data protection. If your scraping collects PII (names, emails, photos), you become a data controller with a full set of obligations. Fines up to €20M or 4% of revenue.
Geo-targeting
featureThe ability to choose the country/city for the exit IP. Minimum precision: country (every provider). Mid: city, ASN (top 10). Maximum: ZIP code (Bright Data, GeoSurf).
H
Headless browser
technicalA browser without a UI — Puppeteer (Chromium), Playwright. Used for scraping automation. Many sites detect headless mode through dedicated JS checks.
HTTP proxy
typeThe most common protocol. Works with HTTP/HTTPS traffic. The standard for web scraping and browser automation.
I
iGaming
industryOnline casinos, bookmakers and lotteries. The hardest vertical for proxies because of strict anti-fraud. Most enterprise providers block these use-cases at KYC.
IP pool
technicalTotal number of unique IPs available from a provider. Marketing numbers: Bright Data 150M+, Decodo 125M+, SOAX 191M+. The real pool for any specific geo is always smaller.
IPv4 / IPv6
technicalTwo versions of the internet protocol. IPv4 is the standard, scarce (~4.3 billion addresses). IPv6 has effectively unlimited addresses but less anti-bot support (often cheaper for scraping).
ISP proxy
Static residential typeA residential and datacenter hybrid: IPs belong to real ISPs but are hosted in data centres. Fast like datacenter, looks like residential. Sold per IP rather than per GB.
J
JA3 fingerprint
protectionA hash of the client's TLS handshake. Unique for each combination of OS, browser and version. Datadome and Akamai use it to detect automated traffic regardless of IP.
K
KYC
Know Your Customer complianceCustomer-verification procedure on signup at a proxy service. Strict at Bright Data and Oxylabs (DPA, use-case description). Lenient at SOAX, Decodo, IPRoyal — a fit for arbitrage.
L
Latency
performanceDelay from request to response through a proxy. Datacenter: 20-80ms, ISP: 50-150ms, residential: 100-500ms, mobile: 200-1000ms.
Load balancing
technicalAutomatically distributing requests between multiple proxy endpoints to avoid overloading any one of them. Implemented client-side or via tools like Bright Data's Proxy Manager.
M
Mobile proxy
typeProxies through real carrier SIM cards (Vodafone, T-Mobile, Kyivstar). Expensive ($25-45/month per port) but immune to bans thanks to carrier-grade NAT.
Multi-account
use-caseWorking with many accounts on the same platform simultaneously (Facebook Ads, Instagram, bookmakers). Requires an anti-detect browser plus mobile dedicated proxies.
N
NAT
Network Address Translation networkTranslation of private IPs into a public one. CGN is the extreme version, where a single public IP is shared between thousands of subscribers.
NowPayments
billingA crypto-payment gateway that most proxy providers use. Supports USDT, BTC, ETH, BNB, BUSD. Fee around 0.5-1%.
O
Open proxy
typeA free public proxy with no authentication. Usually a compromised server or a slow honeypot. Don't use these for serious work.
P
Pay-as-you-go
PAYG billingA no-subscription billing model — top up the balance with $5-50 and spend it at your own pace. Ideal for irregular jobs and tests.
PII
Personally Identifiable Information legalPersonal data: name, email, phone, address, photo. Collecting PII falls under GDPR/CCPA — you need a lawful basis for processing.
Port
technicalNumeric identifier for a proxy endpoint (1-65535). Standard ones: 80, 8080, 8000 (HTTP), 443 (HTTPS), 1080 (SOCKS5). On mobile dedicated, a separate port = a separate SIM.
Proxy Manager
toolingSoftware for centrally managing a proxy pool: Bright Data Proxy Manager, FoxyProxy, Proxychains. Allows rules-based routing.
Puppeteer
toolingA Node.js library for automating Chromium. The standard for scraping JS-heavy sites. Alternative: Playwright (supports Firefox and WebKit too).
R
Rate limit
protectionA cap on requests from a single IP per period (typically 60-1000/min). Going over gets you HTTP 429 Too Many Requests. Mitigation: rotate IPs or throttle on your side.
Residential proxy
typeProxies through IPs of real home users (Comcast, Vodafone, BT). High trust score against anti-bot. Pricing $1.40-10/GB. The standard for scraping and SEO monitoring.
Rotation
featureChanging the IP between requests or on a timer. Rotating: a new IP every request. Sticky: the same IP for a session (10-1440 minutes).
S
Scraping
use-caseAutomated collection of data from websites. Public scraping (no authentication) is legal in most jurisdictions. A ToS violation doesn't make it criminal.
Session
sticky session featureA period of using the same IP. Controlled via a session token in the username:
customer-XXX-session-abc123. Length: 10 minutes (Bright Data) up to 24 hours (SOAX).Shared IP
typeAn IP shared between multiple customers of the proxy service. Cheaper than dedicated, but the IP's reputation depends on what other users do with it.
SOCKS5
typeA lower-level proxy protocol than HTTP — supports any traffic, not just HTTP. Used for UDP, P2P and non-standard protocols.
Sticky session
featurePinning the IP to a session for N minutes. Critical for authenticated workflows (Facebook, banking, e-commerce carts). Length: 10 minutes to 24 hours depending on the provider.
Success rate
performancePercent of HTTP 200 responses out of 1000 benchmark requests. Top providers: 98-99% on standard targets, 65-78% on Datadome.
T
Throughput
performanceRequests per second through one proxy port without degradation. Datacenter: 100+ rps, residential: 10-50 rps, mobile: 5-20 rps.
Tolerance
use-case tolerance complianceHow willing a provider is to serve specific use-cases. iGaming-tolerant: SOAX, Decodo, IPRoyal. Strict (forbidden): Bright Data, Oxylabs, NetNut.
TOS
Terms of Service legalUser agreement with a site. A ToS violation is not a crime — it's a contractual breach. The site can ban your account, but scraping public data is legal in the US (hiQ vs LinkedIn).
U
Unlimited bandwidth
billingA plan without GB limits. Standard for mobile dedicated. In residential plans there's often a hidden cap on threads or concurrent IPs.
User-Agent
UA fingerprintAn HTTP header that identifies the browser. The first level of bot detection: Headless Chrome or Python-requests are easily detected. Spoof to a realistic UA.
V
VPN vs proxy
technicalA VPN encrypts the entire system's traffic through a tunnel; a proxy handles only an individual application's traffic. VPNs typically have a smaller IP pool and aren't a fit for scraping.
W
WebRTC leak
protectionLeaking your real IP via WebRTC API even with the proxy enabled. Fix: disable WebRTC in the browser or use an extension.
Webshare
providerA budget US provider. 10 free datacenter proxies for testing. The best entry-level option for indie developers.
Whitelist IP
authAn auth method where you add your own IPs to an allowed list instead of using user:password. Convenient for server-side setups, impossible for dynamic IPs.
Z
Zip-code targeting
featureThe most precise geo-targeting — a specific postal code. Available with Bright Data, GeoSurf, partially Oxylabs. Used for ad verification.