I do a couple of things that require a spread of IPs. I've found that using a centralised FTP area and cheap shared hosting ($2-$4 a month) and some cron jobs can get things done quickly and reliably.
Whenever I used proxies, the connections never seemed all that reliable and it got increasingly harder to get a decent list of barely working proxies. I think they were generally overused by like-minded people....spamming the arse off blogs or the like.
So are people still using proxies for SEO/webmaster-type tasks (for fetching not browsing)... ? I hear Tor was good for getting big lists it just seems like finding a small subset of responsive, unbanned proxies is a big headache.
Used lots of free methods over the years - but quality is awful
For anon browsing, spreading crawling and other tasks over lots of IP's i use http://www.packetflip.com/ (are cheaper, not tried them, packetflip handle 100k's of queries a day just from a few apps i run - don't support all protocols/ports)
That looks like a nice reliable service.... thanks
Do you know if they have bandwidth limits per proxy... and whether there's some kind of authentication required to use their proxies?
Sounds like someone is gearing up for a major assault on someone. Good luck and I hope it's not me :-)
Nah Rich.. just after reliable connections and a spread of IPs..
I would use one of these:
1) Private proxies, get 10+ for 20-25/month. Use a service where you pick the proxy locations for each ip. Bandwidth unmetered.
2) Shared proxies, get something like 68 ips for $17/month at proxybonanza. 10gb, buy more bandwidth if needed. Some restrictions on usage.
3) Get a vpn from hidemyass for something like 12-15 per month. You're on one ip at a time, click a button to switch ips, several k ips.
Once you use paid proxies, especially #1, you'll wonder why you ever wasted your time with free ones.
Sounds good Drastic.
I would probably go for the non-shared ones since you never know what other people are up to, or could end up a limiting factor.
I take it these kind of services don't expose themselves as proxies with X-Forwarded-For headers and the like?
I guess that's what it means by totally anonymous? (Proxy checking gives me the stats, I don't know the technicals.) You're anonymous and they work great.
packetflip proxies..
fully anonymous
a variety of locations in the US - you get a mix -
need to authenicate with user name and password
More info here >> http://www.packetflip.com/faq.html
and here >> http://www.packetflip.com/tos.html
QuoteAPPENDIX A
Websites to Which There is No Access Through Provider's Services
(As of March 11, 2011)
Website Web Address
AOL Webmail mail.aol.com, webmail.aol.com
Hi5 hi5.com
Hot 313 hot313.com
Hotels Combined hotelscombined.com
Hotmail/Live Webmail mail.live.com, mail.services.live.com
LinkedIn linkedin.com
MeetUp meetup.com
MySpace myspace.com
My Year Book myyearbook.com
Nothing But Software nothingbutsoftware.com
Sol sol.dk
Tagged tagged.com
TicketMaster ticketmaster.com, ticketmaster.ca, ticketmaster.co.uk
Tru Med Canada truemedcanada.com
White Pages whitepages.com, whitepages.ca, phonenumber.com
Yahoo! Webmail mail.yahoo.com
APPENDIX B
Software Prohibited in Use with Provider's Services
(As of January 10, 2011)
Software
XRumer
ScrapeBox Blog Commenter
ScrapeBoard
Have used the shared and dedicated proxies - never had a problem with speed or bandwidth(was reading 100,000's of pages a day)
(possibly better/cheaper services than packetflip, was too lazy to shop around)
Excellent, thanks for your pointers, this'll do nicely.
The nice thing about having shared hosts is you could tack on a site with an expired domain while the other stuff runs in the background, but a big list of proxy IPs is easier to manage from the start.