What Is a Rotating IP Address

IP rotation or a rotating IP is not such an uncommon term, but what does it mean? To help you determine what a rotating IP address is and when it may be beneficial to the work you are doing, consider the following.

So, What Is a Rotating IP Address?

An IP address is a specific address – much like a home address – that instructs on where to go to find a specific website on the internet. There are two forms of them: IPv4 and IPv6.

A rotating IP address is a proxy type. The difference here is that it changes up the IP address it uses on a consistent basis. That means it alters the IP address employed to create the connection to the data source. You can set this up to be done on a scheduled basis or after a certain length of time, for example. You can also set it up to change up the IP address after a specific number of requests have been executed by the system – whatever your objective is.

Typically, the following happens:

• An IP address is automatically assigned from a pool of IPs. This is done when it connects through the Internet Service Provider (ISP).
• The ISP distributes the IP address as soon as the disconnection or the reconnection happens.
• ISPs rotate the dynamic IP address in most situations because they have more users than the IP addresses available. That makes it necessary. When one user disconnects, the IP address returns to the available pool of IP addresses to be used by someone else.
• Proxies exist, as noted called IPv4 and IPv6. These work to improve security and performance.

This is quite common and nothing to consider outlandish. But now, consider IP rotation and what it applies to the situation.

What Is a Rotating Proxy?

Rotating Proxies is a process that assigns a new proxy with each request that is sent to the target site. The proxy itself is an IP address that will be switched up with another IP address as often as you deem it necessary to do so.

How Does Proxy Rotation Work?

ISPs rotate IP addresses. This is not a hidden process and is common. There are various other situations in which users will intentionally rotate their IP addresses as desired.

When you consider rotating proxies, it allows the management of numerous connections utilizing a single device. This enables web crawling and web scraping tasks to be done in a more efficient manner overall.

There are numerous methods to this process. There are some situations where you need to rotate IP addresses manually. Most of the time, you can use a tool that will do the work for you instead.

What Is the Point of Rotating an IP Address Like This?

Why does a random IP address matter?

It ultimately comes down to web scraping. Web scraping, which is the process of gathering useful data from a website over and over again, such as monitoring competitors or prices, isn’t always a desired process from the website’s owner.

By utilizing IP rotation, it becomes possible for you to, potentially, avoid getting blocked from the website while you are trying to gather the valuable data you need. Proxy rotation is one of several strategies you can use to do this, and it can be one of the most effective.

With a rotating IP, you can get your web scraper working past most of the anti-scraping methods the website is using. That’s because it lets you imitate the behavior of multiple people or users on the site. This makes it harder to detect that you are using a bot to gather information.

Who is using IP rotation like this? It’s easy to find examples of companies that are using these tools and the objectives they are after. Let’s consider some of the objectives.

• Data intelligence organizations will use these tools to get analytic and performance information for websites.
• IT companies will use IP rotation as a way to manage network loads and reduce the risk of outages.
• Corporate organizations use these to reduce or eliminate regional presentation and price gouging.
• SEO companies use them to check ranking for various keywords in numerous locations.

There are many other times when they can be used. In any situation where it is possible to exceed request limits or overcome geo-restrictions, there is value in a random IP being assigned.

In comparison to static proxies that remain the same, there is enhanced privacy, security, and more access in place with rotating IP addresses.

How to Set Up Rotating IP Solutions

You can use Rayobyte as a tool to help you with this entire process. Here is how it works in the most simplistic way:

• You copy the credentials for a single point of entry utilizing our dashboard to link to your software.
• The point of entry gets you access to a large pool of IPs. These are IP addresses that come from real internet service providers.
• Each time you make a request to a website, the entry point is rotated. That means that every time, a different IP address is used.
• This allows you to take the information you need and reduces any work that you have to put into the process.

Check out the various plans available from Rayobyte that can facilitate this process for you. It’s a fast, affordable, and even simple way of staying under the radar when it comes to having a unique proxy available. Better yet, you can try out any of our rotating proxy products without any charge to see how they may work for your specific needs.

How Do Proxies Hide an IP Address?

There is a significant amount of work to do to hide an IP address today. There are certainly reasons why you should do so (and some reasons why you should not do so). Yet, for any company that needs to gather data or access a geo-restricted area, the utilization of IP rotation is critical. This is to help you consider the role of proxies in hiding IP addresses and what it could mean for your tasks.

What you need to know

An IP address is an identifier for your computer. It may seem like numbers and letters, but it’s very personalized and influences a lot of what you see and engage in online. No matter what your objective is or why, you can hide your IP address effectively by using IP rotation. That includes avoiding being tracked by your online activity, keeping your home address private, or gathering huge amounts of data to help you monitor changes in your competitors.

Web scraping

One of the most important reasons for a business to use a rotating IP is for web scraping. This process lets you extract information from websites of all types without alerting the website to your actions. The data could include specific pricing information on products or statistics that are important to the work you are doing.

You could do it the old way: using multiple people in various locations to visit a website and then copy down all of the data present. There is no way this is efficient by today’s standards, and therefore, it is better to incorporate a method for accessing the same information without letting the website owner know what’s going on.

With web scraping, you can use it to complete a competitor analysis, gather customer sentiment, or even monitor pricing. The data is invaluable. The problem with web scraping, though, is that there are lots of tools out there to block your access to that valuable information. The competitor does not want you to have access to that information, and they are going to do everything they can to limit your ability to pull that data.

These website owners have tools that will detect what your IP address is and then block or restrict its ability to gather data from your site. IP blocks, errors, captcha requirements, timeouts, and various other blocks can get in the way because the system detects your IP address.

How we hide IP addresses

One way to block an IP address from being stopped during web scraping is to use a proxy. A proxy is a server that works as an intermediary between you and the website you want to get to. They hide your IP address to allow you to continue to gather information.

Rayobyte offers a variety of web proxy tools that you can use, including residential and data center proxies.

Rotating proxy server

One area of specific opportunity is the use of rotating proxy servers. It works to change the IP address of a website whenever it is accessed by the user. This makes it hard for third parties to track the activity of a person or their location.

Most of the time, this tool is beneficial in places where access to specific content needs to be limited. This could be, for example, an office network or even a school. These types of networks use caches instead of saving data to a computer.

You Can Do Get IP Rotation Manually

It is possible to carry out the process manually if, for some reason, you have a lot of time on your hands and do not want to use a tool like Rayobyte’s to help you. This may be done, for example, for an individual that wants to rotate their proxy. You will need to configure the proxy setting in your web browser for this. There are web proxy managers out there who can make it easy overall.

Why Use a Rotating IP?

There are various reasons why a random IP address can be a good thing. Rotating Ips are helpful because they add more security to the activities you are engaging in. This is specifically helpful when you’re engaging in web scraping activities. It works more authentically, creating requests for information from different IP addresses each time. That way, you are able to act as if you are using random IP addresses. If there is any reason for you to want to act like multiple users or you need to avoid getting blocked, then rotating IP addresses is a good idea.

With a random IPS, your web scraping activities are likely to be more comprehensive and effective. Because it allows you to mimic the actions of numerous people, there is more access, better information, and fewer restrictions on getting the content you need for whatever project you are working on. In most situations, a rotating IP will help to improve your web scraping project without any added level of frustration.

Is the use of a random IP address illegal?

This is a very common question, and with all of the security today, it is certainly a question that should be asked. Here’s what you need to know.

Rotating proxies and a rotating IP address is a way to secure your information and create a better level of anonymity. There is nothing illegal about this in most cases. While you should speak to an attorney if you plan to engage in activities that may be questionable, rotating IP addresses themselves is not illegal. It really is up to you to make sure you understand any laws you could be breaking during this process, though.

Find Out How Rayobyte Can Help You with IP Rotation

What could a random IPS do for you?

To keep your information from prying eyes and to gain access to the information you need, turn to Rayobyte. With numerous strategies and tools available, there is a way to protect your IP address and interact with the websites and data you desire with ease. Contact us to learn more.

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