Last updated on November 27th, 2023 at 09:23 pm
Web scraping is an essential tool for businesses, allowing them to get current market information quickly. However, as with many online tools, web scrapers or data miners come with their own restrictions, which can provide a challenge for businesses using them. Tools like these SOCKS5 proxies effectively enhance your web scraper and get even better results. In this article, we look at the challenges of data mining and how proxy servers overcome them.
Table of Contents
What are SOCKS5 Proxies?
SOCKS5 proxy servers are excellent, universal tools for individuals and businesses scraping the web. It creates a connection using Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and transfers data using secure shell (SSH) tunneling.
As such, this proxy is one of the most secure types, as the proxy doesn’t read the user’s data. You can even set up authentication on your activities to ensure that only authorized users can access it.
What Types are Available?
Three types are available: residential, dedicated datacenter, and mobile. Any of these will work for web scraping, though residential and mobile proxies are the better options. These look more like a natural person connecting, so platforms are less likely to detect that you’re using a proxy.
Further, the SOCKS5 proxies can be sticky or rotating. Sticky ones will keep the same IP address it assigns while rotating ones will assign a new IP address with each new connection or request. Generally, it’s best to get one that offers both options to allow for more flexibility.
How SOCKS5 Proxy Servers Enhance Web Scrapers?
It’s not just one or two benefits that proxies bring to the table when used with web scrapers. Multiple benefits exist, all working together to give you a seamless and enhanced web scraper.
Prevents IP Bans
There are a variety of reasons for websites to ban your IP. They might find something suspicious about your connection, learn you’re in a restricted location, or suspect your connection as being bot-driven. Regardless of the reason, the action is to ban your IP address. This ban becomes a problem, especially as your IP address is linked to your device and location, which means you can’t manually change it without using a tool.
However, proxies can conceal your IP address and assign a different one. With rotating proxies, you can get a new IP address for each request, which means you won’t become blocked in the first place. It’s possible to ignore any existing IP bans and prevent new ones from happening when using these tools, as the platform won’t flag your connection as suspicious.
It also means you won’t experience IP bans due to being in a restricted location, as you can simply change the location to an accepted one.
Bypasses Rate Limitations
Rate limitations are when websites restrict the number of requests you can send. As web scrapers can send hundreds to thousands of requests each second, it’s easy to hit rate limitations and become blocked or restricted. It’s also a way for the website to avoid DDoS attacks and prevent bots from accessing their sites.
However, with a rotating proxy, you bypass rate limitations, as it’s not picked up that the same entity is sending the request. By having the IP address of the web scraper change with each request or after a specific timeframe, you bypass rate limitations entirely.
Gain Market Insights
Web scrapers are ideal to use when you want specific market information. However, it can be challenging to set it so that the data miner collects data within a specific market. This broad market means you might need to sort through various data sets to find the relevant information.
However, with a proxy, your web scraper can collect specific information related to the market. Let’s say you want competitor prices for sneakers in New York. Using the proxy, you can set your location to New York even if you’re in another state. This way, you’ll get the local results and current market information.
Anonymous Scraping Activities
When you use a web scraper without a proxy, you leave behind a digital footprint. Hackers and other people online who know what they’re doing can track that footprint to learn more about you. For example, your IP address gives anyone who knows how to read it your location. It also links to your online activities, so they can see which websites the data miner accessed.
As the SOCKS5 proxy effectively hides your IP address, no one can trace your activities. It’s not your IP they see; any digital footprint it leaves behind won’t link to you.
Enhance Your Web Scraping for Better Information
Data mining is critical for any business that wants to remain relevant in the market. It helps you gather competitor pricing and create an effective marketing strategy. However, that’s only if you pair it with SOCKS5 proxies, tools that enable target marketing, bypassing rate limitations, and protecting your identity and online activities.
