Blog

    Field notes on running proxies at scale — written against the same gateway the documentation describes.

    20
    Articles
    01Targeting

    ASN targeting proxy: what it is and when it earns 2x

    ASN targeting picks the network behind the IP, not the place. What it costs, when it is the only thing that works, and why exclusion is the better half.

    · 13 min read

    Does city-level proxy targeting actually work?

    A 200 OK proves nothing about location. Why geo databases disagree, how silent fallback contaminates data, and a four-step check for any city filter.

    · 14 min read

    02Pricing and economics

    Do failed proxy requests count against my bandwidth?

    Yes, with one near-exception. What each failure class puts on the wire, the retry arithmetic, and how to cut failed-request spend without losing coverage.

    · 13 min read

    Should you use a headless browser or plain HTTP requests?

    A headless browser pays about 130 times the bytes of the HTML it renders. Here is the measured ratio, the break-even math, and when the cost is worth it.

    · 13 min read

    How many proxy threads do you actually need?

    Threads = requests per second x average response time. Work the formula, then find out whether concurrency or gigabytes runs out first on your plan.

    · 11 min read

    How much bandwidth does web scraping use?

    HTML is 22 KB of a 2,559 KB median home page. Here is the per-100K-page arithmetic, the harness to measure your own targets, and what it costs.

    · 15 min read

    Proxies for SEO rank tracking: a cost model

    Rank tracking is priced per successful query, not per gigabyte. The formula, the volume math for 10,000 keywords, and when to buy a SERP API instead.

    · 13 min read

    How to reduce proxy bandwidth costs

    Nine tactics, ranked: conditional requests, route interception, compression, dedupe and pool choice. With the arithmetic, and the ones not worth doing.

    · 15 min read

    Proxy bandwidth billing: how providers count traffic

    Per-GB proxy billing counts request headers, TLS, redirects and failed responses, not just the page body. Here is every component, and how to audit it.

    · 14 min read

    03Provider evaluation

    Ethically sourced residential proxies: verify the claim

    Every provider asserts ethical sourcing about itself. Twelve questions to ask instead, four tests that need no trust, and what a deflection looks like.

    · 18 min read

    04Authentication

    IP whitelisting vs username password proxy auth

    IP whitelisting vs username password proxy auth: what each checks, where whitelists break in Docker, Kubernetes, CI and serverless, and what 407 means.

    · 16 min read

    05Migration

    NetNut alternative: what breaks when you migrate

    NetNut's network was disrupted on 2026-07-02. What to inventory before you lose access, what breaks silently on the new provider, and a 48-hour cutover.

    · 17 min read

    06Integrations

    Node.js fetch proxy agent: the undici dispatcher

    Node's global fetch ignores HTTP_PROXY and has no agent option. Set an undici ProxyAgent dispatcher, dodge the version-skew trap, and rotate cleanly.

    · 13 min read

    Playwright proxy per browser context rotation

    A context's proxy is fixed at creation and SOCKS5 auth is undocumented. Build a context pool on sticky ports, isolate identity, and cut the bandwidth bill.

    · 14 min read

    Selenium proxy authentication after Manifest V3

    Chrome 138 disabled the MV2 auth extension and MV3 service workers miss the challenge. Six ways to do Selenium proxy authentication, compared in a table.

    · 16 min read

    07Configuration

    Proxy environment variables: HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY traps

    HTTP_PROXY and HTTPS_PROXY behave differently in every tool. Casing rules, precedence, the five ways NO_PROXY silently fails, and where they land.

    · 17 min read

    08Fundamentals

    Proxy list vs proxy gateway: which is better

    Proxy list vs proxy gateway: what each model makes you own, the per-IP against per-GB break-even formula, and why pool size is not a purchase criterion.

    · 17 min read

    Rotating vs sticky proxy sessions: pick by task

    Rotating draws a new exit per connection. Sticky holds one for 1-120 minutes. Which port selects which, how long to hold, and what breaks either way.

    · 12 min read

    09Troubleshooting

    Rotating proxy not changing IP? It's keep-alive

    Rotation fires per TCP connection, not per request. Keep-alive holds the socket, so the exit never moves. Reproduce it in 30 seconds, then fix by client.

    · 11 min read

    10Protocols

    socks5 vs socks5h DNS leak, demonstrated

    One character decides who resolves your hostnames. Here is the socks5 vs socks5h DNS leak, shown live with curl and tcpdump, plus the fix per client.

    · 13 min read

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