How to Use Proxy Rotator: Make the Most of Your Datacenter Proxies

Oxylabs’ Proxy Rotator is an essential add-on for datacenter proxy users. It is a simple solution for scraping uncomplicated targets. With the Oxylabs’ Proxy Rotator service, we rotate your IP addresses to ensure you achieve the best data gathering results while staying anonymous online.

To better understand what the Oxylabs’ Proxy Rotator is and how to use proxy rotator, let’s start with explaining IP rotation.

How does IP rotation work?

As we explain in our How to Rotate IP Address blog post, IP rotation is a process where connections to the pool of proxies are being distributed evenly to diversify the range of IPs that are used to scrape the target. IP rotation can either be set up by a dedicated specialist at your company or by a proxy rotator service provider.

Why rotate proxies?

Most importantly, IP rotation ensures a high level of anonymity. Changing IP addresses ensures you can not be traced. At the same time, the target sees you as an organic user.

Proxy rotation is widely used to automate various tasks, for example, data scraping.

Datacenter Proxies often get banned, because systems recognize similar IP addresses and block them. Some systems block an entire subnet, which means that 256 IP addresses are banned from the target. This is where the proxy rotator steps in: to achieve the best results, we recommend buying IP addresses from different subnets and rotating them.

While proxy rotator service does not entirely save datacenter proxies from being blocked, constantly changing IP addresses increases the success rate. You have a significantly lower chance of being blocked for bot-like behavior, compared with results that are achieved while using proxies without rotation.

However, to scrape more complicated websites, you may need to keep the same IP address for a sequence of requests. With Oxylabs’ Proxy Rotator, all you need to do is simply add an extra header to your code. Once that is done, you can use the same proxy for multiple requests.

How to use Proxy Rotator?

Using Proxy Rotator is easy. A client receives one entry node with a required amount of static proxies (learn more about static vs. rotating proxies). The rotator picks a random IP address and rotates it to another one on each request sent to the target. This way, datacenter proxies mimic organic traffic behavior and do not get blocked as fast.

At Oxylabs, once you acquire Datacenter Proxies, you receive detailed documentation that helps you get started. There you will find answers to frequently asked questions and an example of how to set up the proxy rotator.

What is the difference between a proxy rotator and rotating proxies?

At Oxylabs, all Residential IPs are rotating proxies. Our system changes the IP addresses at every request you send to the target or can be time-based.

Our Datacenter Proxies do not initially have a rotating proxy feature. But you can easily add it on by choosing our proxy rotator.

What do businesses use proxy rotators for?

Businesses use proxy rotator for scraping websites and collecting data. Datacenter proxies with an add-on Oxylabs’ Proxy Rotator are a perfect solution for targeting websites that do not have a refined blocking logic. 

Simply speaking, if you are looking to gather large amounts of data from simple websites and want to avoid being blocked at every step, Oxylabs’ Proxy Rotator is the best solution for you!

However, if you are using other proxy tools such as a web scraper or a web crawler tool, you do not need an additional proxy rotator service. These tools already automatically rotate proxies for you. 

You also do not need a proxy rotator if you use residential proxies, because with these proxies, the rotation is already in place.

Building a proxy rotator vs buying one

A proxy rotator can be built by yourself. For that you need to generate a list of IP addresses and build a sequence that uses proxies to scrape data. The most important part is to gather reliable proxies. Essentially, they determine the scraping success.  

As a company, you would need to dedicate someone from your team or hire a person to create an automated rotation and monitor the process.

Getting a proxy rotator from your proxy service provider is an optimal choice that saves time and money. Here at Oxylabs, our team sets up proxy rotation for you. The integration of the Oxylabs’ Proxy Rotator is fast and easy. 

Conclusions

Oxylab’s Proxy Rotator is an essential add on for your datacenter proxies. The rotator reduces IP blocks and ensures a smooth data gathering process. 

Oxylabs’ IP Rotator is easy to use, the integration is quick and simple. Choosing our proxy rotator saves your company time, money, and human resources.

Now that you learned what is Proxy Rotator and how to use Proxy Rotator, simply register at Oxylabs.io, or log in to your account if you already have one. Then, easily add a proxy rotator to your data service proxy plan. Voilà! If you're interested, you can read about other proxy types, such as Backconnect Proxies, or an extensive tutorial on how to use proxies for Windows, Mac, and various browsers.