Proxies are one of the most useful assets when it comes to scraping data from websites online. It works basically as a medium to mask your internet identity. You could browse anything you want to, and scrape anything you want to, without revealing your identity.
However, how does it actually help the web scraping process? Ideally, any website admin can get the IP from your browsing activities. When you use a scraping tool or technology, you are basically going through vast volumes of data very fast.
In this way, the site recognizes some suspicious activity and blocks out the software or technology in use. This defeats the whole purpose. This is where proxies come in handy since they provide you with a different identity. So, when you keep rotating the proxies for scraping, the website is unable to detect any such activities from a single address.
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Exploring the Varieties of Canadian Proxies
Mostly, proxies are available in two varieties. The first is the data center proxy, and the second is the residential proxy. Same goes for Canada Proxies:
Let us start with the former. The data center proxy is one that is not provided by an internet service provider. In fact, this address is provided to you by a third party Canadian proxy distributor. So it becomes almost impossible to trace the system. How does this benefit you? Typically, these proxies offer high speeds and high levels of anonymity. These features are essential to conduct multiple data scraping activities. Also, your location is automatically masked with this sort of proxy.
Next comes the residential proxy. It is pretty different from the data center ones. Here, your location is tagged to a specific position. You could tamper with the location based on your website requirements. For instance, if a particular site is restricted in your location, you could change your IP location to Canada. However, in this case, residential proxies are provided by the internet service provider, and no third party is involved.
That is not the only set of proxies available. Another way to classify them is based on their behavior. Some proxies are private that cater only to your requirement. No one else would use this address, and thus these types of proxy provide high speed.
Next, there are shared proxies that can be used by multiple users at the same time. These proxies offer slightly reduced speeds, but since so many people operate from the same address, the websites cannot identify the user at all. If you don’t need more information on proxies generally, you can go straight to oxylabs website to learn more about Canadian proxies!
What to Look For In a Good Canadian Proxy Provider?
- Multiple locations
One of the primary features of a good proxy provider is that they offer multiple locations to the user. This means that if you are staying in the US, you might as well be surfing the internet from the perspective of a Canadian user. Multiple locations are important because an English speaking user would want to choose Ontario and someone who speaks French would choose Quebec.
- Dedicated proxies
Yes, shared proxies are indeed more convenient since they do not drill a hole in your pocket. However, if you want to really engage in hardcore web scraping activities, then dedicated proxies are the right way forward for you.
You do not have to share your address with anyone else. Moreover, when you are dealing with large volumes of data, quick response time will be beneficial. Fishing a few extra bucks to get yourself a more dedicated service is not that bad an idea!
- IP pool
A good proxy service provider needs to have a big IP pool. Before we get into the details, let us understand how a proxy purchase actually works. So, typically, when you want to purchase a set of proxies for yourself, you are basically asking the provider to give you a whole bunch of proxy addresses.
As a user, you could rotate amongst these addresses in order to get your work done. This is why, the larger is the IP pool for the provider, the more robust are your chances of efficient web scraping. Plus, a bigger pool means that addresses are scattered around different locations.
- Legitimate provider
Do not just blindly opt for any company that promises to provide you with free proxies. A legitimate company will not only give you good proxy addresses but will also help you through legal difficulties later, if there are any. This can come in handy at a later point in time.
- Additional support
Many proxy providers offer a few value-added services to help you with proxies. This could mean assigning a dedicated account manager to cater to all your difficulties. This would also mean that you have 24×7 support in case you run into any kinds of technical problems at any point of the day.
This is a guest contributor post.
