Top 10 Proxy Myths, Busted (Quick Countdown)

Top 10 Proxy Myths, Busted illustration: are proxies illegal? Do they make you anonymous? Is more IPs always better? Ten common proxy myths, counted down and corrected with sources 3jdej38j4

The countdown

Proxy forums are full of confident advice that turns out to be wrong. Here are ten myths we hear constantly, from mildly misleading to genuinely costly.

10. "IPv6 proxies work everywhere"

Many websites still do not support IPv6 at all, and the ones that do often ban whole /64 blocks. IPv6 proxies are great value for sites that accept them, and useless for the rest. See what /24 and /64 mean.

Counting them down (animated GIF) 3jdej38j4 — Counting them down. GIF via Tenor

9. "Rotating on every request is always best"

Rotation is perfect for crawling many separate pages, and terrible for logins, carts and anything multi-step, where a real user keeps one IP. Use sticky sessions for those.

8. "More IPs is always better"

A smaller pool of clean IPs from many subnets beats a giant pool of abused ones. And if you get blocked for behaviour, more IPs just get blocked faster. See proxy pool size.

7. "Residential proxies can never be blocked"

They are harder to block, not impossible. Bad behaviour, fingerprints, or an IP someone else abused yesterday can still get you challenged.

Proxy tip: If you want to try these ideas on a real network, Geonode sells pay-as-you-go residential bandwidth that doesn't expire, so a small balance is enough to experiment with rotation, sticky sessions and geo-targeting. See our Geonode proxies guide for how its products fit together.

6. "Elite proxies are undetectable"

"Elite" just means the proxy adds no revealing headers. Sites still check the IP's network owner, its reputation and your browser. See elite proxies.

When someone says elite proxies are undetectable (animated GIF) 3jdej38j4 — When someone says elite proxies are undetectable. GIF via GIPHY

5. "Free proxies are fine for testing"

Public free proxies are often banned, slow, or run by people watching your traffic, and research has found open proxies that tamper with pages. Use a real provider's free trial instead. See are free proxies safe?

4. "A proxy encrypts my traffic"

Usually it does not. HTTPS sites stay encrypted because of TLS, not because of the proxy. See does a proxy encrypt traffic?

3. "A proxy is just a cheap VPN"

They overlap, but a VPN encrypts your whole device, while proxies are built for running many IPs in many places from one app. See is a proxy the same as a VPN?

Budget tip: If you want a cheap proxy to try this with, Webshare has a free plan with 10 datacenter proxies and 1 GB of bandwidth a month, no card required. Paid lists let you pick proxy count, bandwidth and location. See Webshare's free proxy plan.

2. "Proxies make you anonymous"

They change your IP. Your cookies, logins, browser fingerprint and behaviour still identify you, and the proxy provider knows who you are. See does a proxy hide my IP?

1. "Proxies are illegal"

Using a proxy is legal in most countries; it is ordinary internet infrastructure that companies run in every office. What can be illegal is what you do through it: accessing systems without authorisation, breaking privacy law, or fraud. See are proxies legal?

Residential tip: Rayobyte is worth testing when you need precise targeting: its residential proxies can be pinned to a country, state, city, ZIP code or ASN, with sticky sessions from 1 to 120 minutes. More in choosing the right Rayobyte product.

Learn more

Sources and further reading

Independent references that back up the points above, from standards bodies, governments, universities and non-profits. They open in a new tab.

An Extensive Evaluation of the Internet's Open Proxies (arXiv (Georgetown University researchers)): A study that found many free open proxies inject or tamper with traffic.
Van Buren v. United States (2021) (Supreme Court of the United States): The Supreme Court ruling that narrowed what "exceeds authorized access" means.
Glossary: Proxy Server (NIST CSRC): NIST's formal definition of a proxy server.
Choosing the VPN That's Right for You (Electronic Frontier Foundation): The EFF's guide to what VPNs do and do not protect, which also applies to proxies.
RFC 8200: Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) (IETF / RFC Editor): The current IPv6 specification, the address format behind IPv6 proxies.
Number Resources (IANA): How IANA hands IP address blocks to the regional internet registries.

Affiliate disclosure: Team of Monkeys is an affiliate of Geonode, Webshare and Rayobyte. Links and banners marked as sponsored, and links to Geonode, Webshare and Rayobyte in the text, use our referral links, and we may earn a commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. Our explanations and comparisons are written to be useful whichever provider you choose.

Editorial note: Proxy providers change their pools, features and prices often, so treat any figures here as typical ranges at the time of writing and confirm current terms with the provider before you buy.