Explainer
Plain-English explainers from HProxy on how proxies and web scraping really work: residential vs datacenter, rotation, anonymity levels and more.
65 articles
Explainer
What is a proxy hostname? Host, port and how to find yours
A proxy hostname is the name of the proxy server you connect to. How DNS turns it into an address, which name goes where, and what Android's field accepts.
October 10, 2026 · 10 min read
Explainer
Proxy Scraper: What One Collects, and How Little of It Works
A proxy scraper collects proxy addresses from public pages and tests them. What ours found since May 2026, why most of it fails, and a safe script to run one.
September 27, 2026 · 11 min read
Explainer
Proxy Server Software: The Free Programs, Their Defaults, and the Catch
Proxy server software turns a computer into a proxy. The free programs for Windows and Linux, their default ports, and why a server of your own adds no new IP.
September 27, 2026 · 8 min read
Explainer
Proxy SLA: What an Uptime Guarantee Covers, and What It Pays
What a proxy SLA promises and pays: how downtime is defined, the window, the credit and its cap, the claim deadline, and what it never covers. Five real SLAs side by side.
September 26, 2026 · 7 min read
Explainer
Socks5 Configurator: How It Works, How to Set It Up, and Its Limits
Socks5 Configurator sends Chrome through one SOCKS5 proxy. How to fill in its fields, which sites its default list skips, and why no login can work.
September 26, 2026 · 8 min read
Explainer
What Is the Proxy Industry, and Why Does It Exist?
The proxy industry rents access to other people's IP addresses. Why that market exists, who supplies the addresses, what a gigabyte really costs, and what the courts have actually decided.
September 12, 2026 · 35 min read
Explainer
What Is a Clean IP? What It Is Clean Of and How to Check
A clean IP has no blocklist entry, no abuse record and no proxy flag. What each check reads, how to run it, and why 6 of 5,948 free proxies passed all four.
August 26, 2026 · 8 min read
Explainer
What Is a Good IP Fraud Score? What Each Scale Means
A good IP fraud score is a low one, but each service draws its own lines. What Scamalytics, IPQS and MaxMind say, and what 4,992 free proxies scored.
August 26, 2026 · 8 min read
Explainer
Proxies for AI Coding Tools: Where Each One Takes a Proxy, With Our Lab Results
Where Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Cline, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, Zed and more take a proxy, what our labs found, and where the code they write needs one.
August 24, 2026 · 8 min read
Explainer
Reverse Proxy vs Network Proxy in AI Roleplay: What the Word Means on Janitor AI, Chub and SillyTavern
On Janitor AI, Chub and SillyTavern, a 'proxy' is usually a language-model endpoint, not an IP address. This explainer separates the three things the word means in AI roleplay (a model endpoint, an HTTP reverse proxy for exposing your own server, and a network proxy that changes where you connect from), shows which symptom points to which one, and quotes the warnings each platform prints about proxies you do not run.
August 24, 2026 · 8 min read
Explainer
Was ist ein Proxy? Einfach erklärt (2026)
Was ist ein Proxy? Ein Server, der deine Anfragen weiterleitet, sodass eine Website die IP des Proxys sieht. Wie er funktioniert, die Typen, HTTP gegen SOCKS und wann sich welcher lohnt.
August 24, 2026 · 3 min read
Explainer
Which AI Sites Block the UK and Australia, and Why: The Age-Verification Map, in Each Site's Own Words
Since July 25, 2025, the UK's Online Safety Act, and since 2025-2026 Australia's eSafety rules, have made AI sites choose between age checks and switching a country off. Civitai blocked the UK and later Australia, Janitor AI blocked the UK and then moved to verification, Chub fenced the UK and left Australia, SpicyChat walls adult content by IP, PolyBuzz verifies UK users. What each site says, what an address changes, and why verifying beats a proxy for adults.
August 24, 2026 · 11 min read
Explainer
Are Free Proxies Legal? Three Different Questions, Three Different Answers
Using a proxy is legal in most countries. Whether that particular proxy is yours to use, and whether what you do through it is lawful, are separate questions with different answers.
August 23, 2026 · 9 min read
Explainer
ISP vs Mobile Proxies: Which One and When
ISP vs mobile proxies: an ISP proxy is one address of your own on a server, a mobile proxy shares a phone carrier's address with many people. What IP data sees, what each costs, and which to buy.
August 23, 2026 · 7 min read
Explainer
Proxy vs VPN vs Tor: Who You Have to Trust, and What Each One Hides
These three get ranked as if hiding were a single scale. They are different trust models. Who can see what in each one, where each genuinely wins, and where each is the wrong tool.
August 23, 2026 · 10 min read
Explainer
Types of Proxies: Residential, ISP, Mobile and Datacenter Explained
The four types of proxies by address source, plus protocol, rotation and sharing, with median prices from the price lists of up to 64 sellers per type.
August 23, 2026 · 8 min read
Explainer
What Is a White Label Proxy Provider, and When Should You Use One?
White label proxy reselling means selling someone else's network under your brand while they run the infrastructure. How the model works mechanically, what it can and cannot do for you, and the questions that separate good programs from traps.
August 23, 2026 · 6 min read
Explainer
What Is an Anti-Bot Solver API, and How Is It Different From a CAPTCHA Solver?
A solver API generates the payload an anti-bot script would have produced, over plain HTTP, so you skip the browser. Where it sits between a CAPTCHA solver, a scraping API, and your own proxy.
August 6, 2026 · 11 min read
Explainer
Transparent vs anonymous vs elite proxies: proxy anonymity levels, tested
Proxy anonymity levels, tested: the headers that make a proxy transparent, anonymous or elite, a test that shows the leak, and what elite cannot hide.
July 21, 2026 · 12 min read
Explainer
What Is CGNAT? Carrier-Grade NAT and Why Strangers Share One IP
CGNAT lets an internet provider share one public IPv4 address among many subscribers. How it works, the 100.64.0.0/10 range, and what it means for proxies.
July 21, 2026 · 9 min read
Explainer
HTTP vs HTTPS Proxy: The Difference Is the First Hop
HTTP vs HTTPS proxy explained: an HTTPS proxy is one you reach over TLS, and both kinds carry HTTPS sites. What CONNECT does, what each hop can read, and browser support.
July 18, 2026 · 7 min read
Explainer
IPv4 vs IPv6 Proxies: Which One Actually Reaches Your Target
IPv4 vs IPv6 proxies: why IPv4 is scarce and trusted, why IPv6 is cheap and abundant, the reach gotcha that catches people, and how sites block a whole IPv6 subnet at once.
July 18, 2026 · 6 min read
Explainer
What Is a Backconnect Proxy? One Gateway, a Whole Pool Behind It
A backconnect proxy is one gateway in front of a pool of exit IPs. How it works, how it rotates or holds a session, and what sellers' pool sizes really count.
July 18, 2026 · 8 min read
Explainer
What Is a Datacenter Proxy? How Sites Tell and When to Use One
What is a datacenter proxy? A proxy whose exit IP belongs to a cloud or hosting company. How sites tell from the registry and the clouds' own lists, what one costs, and when to use it.
July 18, 2026 · 7 min read
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Proxies that don't die mid-job
Residential, ISP, datacenter and mobile, verified by the same engine that runs tens of millions of checks. They read as a real device and hold up under load. Pay as you go, and your balance never expires. $0.44/GB is the 2,000 GB+ rate; a single gigabyte is $0.50/GB, with no minimum order.
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Honest guides and comparisons on proxies, scraping and staying unblocked, from the team that runs the network.