If you’re looking into web scraping or automation, you’ve probably heard of IP bans. Well, the good news is that you can easily bypass IP blocks by rotating your IP address. But what exactly is IP rotation, and how to set it up?

What Is IP Rotation?

IP rotation is a process that randomly changes your IP address with a different one. It can happen upon a connection request, after a certain period of time, or following some other condition.

For example, once you sign up with an Internet Service Provider (ISP), you get assigned either a static or dynamic IP address. While static IPs don’t change, dynamic ones rotate naturally.

Usually, most consumer providers offer dynamic IPs as they have a limited number of addresses to work with. Once you connect to the internet, the provider assigns you an address from a pool of unused IPs; after a while, it returns to the pool, and you get a new IP.

ISP rotate IP address because they usually have more users than IP addresses at their disposal. Hence, when a particular user disconnects, the ISP will bring back the user’s most recently used IP address to their pool of IP addresses, thus ensuring the optimization of existing resources.

What is a proxy rotation?

ISPs rotate IP addresses, and this process is transparent to their users. However, out there in the online world, there are plenty of cases when internet users intentionally rotate their IP address. In fact, not even an IP address, but they rotate proxies, which allows them to operate under multiple different IP addresses.

If the proxy server is accurately configured, rotating IP addresses from a proxy pool of IP addresses is possible. With rotating proxies, you can manage numerous connections from a single device, and carrying out web crawling and data scraping operations becomes a much easier task.

There are different methods used to rotate IP addresses. In some cases it has to be done manually, as is the case with Chrome proxies (learn how to use proxy in Chrome). But here at Oxylabs, we offer a Proxy Rotator that does all the work for you.

Why rotate proxies?

First and foremost, proxy rotation enhances the level of anonymity. Secondly, as already mentioned, it is a widely used practice to automate such tasks as data scraping and web crawling in order to increase success rates.

When it comes to web scraping operations, a common challenge faced by many is avoiding getting blocked by websites while trying to gather the data.

Several techniques can aid the prevention of blocks, and one of them is proxy rotation. It can help to operate scrapers past most of the anti-scraping measures as it allows to imitate the behavior of multiple organic users. Hence, strengthening the chance of being undetected while gathering vast amounts of data.

There are countless cases out there when proxy rotation is being used. Here are some examples:

• SEO firms use proxies that automatically rotate to check keyword rankings from various locations or to promote specific content on social media accounts.

• Data intelligence companies rotate proxies automatically to scrape websites for analytics and performance purposes. 

Methods used to rotate IP addresses

Internet Service Providers rotate IP addresses using a number of different methods:

• Pre-configured IP rotation. This refers to a technique where the rotation is pre-configured to occur at specified intervals. Once the time specified elapses, the user is assigned a new IP address.

• Specific IP rotation. The user can choose which IP address to use for an outgoing connection.

• Random IP rotation. This method assigns a randomly rotating address to each new outgoing connection. The user has no control over which address gets assigned.

• Burst IP rotation. The ISP assigns new IP addresses after a specified number of connections. For example, if the specified number is 10, a new IP address will be given to the eleventh connection after every 10 connections are initiated.

Internet users can use the most convenient automatic proxy rotation tools, such as our PIA Proxy Manager. This tool will automatically rotate proxy IP addresses using the random IP rotation method.

Using a dedicated proxy rotation service makes it easy to pass blocks when performing web scraping. It also reduces the risk of misconfiguring the IP rotation process, which can lead to overuse of certain proxies and lead to bans.

Conclusion

Now you know what benefits a combination of proxies and IP rotation provide, and the purpose it serves. If you are indeed carrying out data scraping and web crawling tasks, we highly recommend implementing a high-quality proxy rotation solution to increase your success rates and protect your proxy pool infrastructure.