Dynamic IP Proxy Setup Guide: Windows/Linux Deployment Tutorials

Why do I need to build my own proxy IP?

To put it bluntly, building your own proxy IPs is just a way tosense of controlYou're using someone else's off-the-shelf service. If you use someone else's ready-made service, you don't get to say what the IP is or when to change it. But if you build one yourself, it's like digging a well in your own backyard, and you can draw water when you want and how much you want. Especially for data collection, account management, or the need for a specific area of the network environment of the work, there is a deployment of their own agent, flexibility and stability can be enhanced by a large margin. For example, you may encounter a certain website on a particular IP segment "care", their own build can easily bypass.

There's a threshold to build it yourself, and it takes a bit of tossing and turning. But once you get it right, the subsequent maintenance cost is actually not high. Below I'll talk about how to get it by system.

Deployment Guide for Windows (with Squid as an example)

There are a lot of ways to do proxying on Windows, but using Squid is a classic and solid move; Squid itself is a caching proxy server, and it's quite powerful.

Step 1: Installation environment

It's not easy to run Squid on Windows itself, so you usually have to use some tools. Here we recommend usingCygwinIt can simulate a Linux-like environment on Windows. Go to the Cygwin website and download the installer, remember to check theDevelThe compilation tools gcc and make under the category ofnet (computing)category under openssl-devel, or else compiling Squid later might be missing an arm and a leg.

Step 2: Download and compile Squid

Go to the Squid website and download a stable version of the source package, such as squid-5.9.tar.gz. Extract it with Cygwin Terminal and go into the directory:

tar -xzf squid-5.9.tar.gz
cd squid-5.9
. /configure --prefix=/usr/local/squid --enable-ssl --enable-basic-auth-helpers="NCSA"
make -j4
make install

This pile of commands means: configure the installation path, turn on SSL support, whole on basic authentication, then compile and install. Runmake -j4When it may take a while, the computer fan whirrs normally.

Step 3: Configure Squid

After installation, here comes the kicker, configuration! Go to the installation directory, for example/usr/local/squid/etc/squid/Main changessquid.confThis file.

 Define an access control list, e.g. only local connections are allowed first
acl localnet src 192.168.0.0/16
acl localnet src 10.0.0.0/8

 Set the HTTP access port, default 3128
http_port 3128

 Set the cache size and path
cache_dir ufs /usr/local/squid/var/cache/squid 100 16 256

 Access control, allow local network, deny others, then allow HTTP connections
http_access allow localnet
http_access deny all
http_access allow HTTP

 Visible hostname, change it to your own machine name or IP address.
visible_hostname myproxy.windows.pc

After matching, you have to create the cache directory first:/usr/local/squid/sbin/squid -z. Then start the service:/usr/local/squid/sbin/squid. Now, your Windows machine is offering HTTP proxy services on port 3128.

Step 4: Client Connection Test

In your other computer or browser, set the proxy server address to the IP of this Windows machine, port 3128. if you can access the Internet normally, it means the proxy is working!

Linux System Deployment Guide (a little simpler)

It's much friendlier on Linux, especially with popular distributions like Ubuntu and CentOS.

Ubuntu/Debian systems:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install squid -y

After installation, the main configuration file is usually in the/etc/squid/squid.conf. The modification is similar to the Windows version, restart the service after the change:sudo systemctl restart squidThe

CentOS/RHEL systems:

sudo yum update
sudo yum install squid -y
 Or use dnf for newer versions: sudo dnf install squid -y

The configuration file path is similar to Ubuntu, also/etc/squid/squid.conf. Remember to open the firewall port after you change it:sudo firewall-cmd --add-port=3128/tcp --permanent after that sudo firewall-cmd --reload. Finally restart squid:sudo systemctl restart squidThe

Linux usually comes with systemd, and it's easy to set up bootup:sudo systemctl enable squidThe

The pain points of self-built agents and the advantages of ipipgo

Hitching an agent on your own sounds beautiful, but in actuality there are a couple of hurdles that you can't get around:

• IP resource issues:Your own broadband IP, usually assigned by your carrier, may change every now and then, and many of them are "big LAN" IPs (that is, intranet IPs), which are not directly accessible from the outside. You'll have to fiddle with the intranet penetration, which is a lot of work.
• Bandwidth and stability:The uplink bandwidth of home broadband is usually very small, and a few people may get stuck. Moreover, there is no guarantee of the quality of the network, and it may be disconnected at any time.
• Maintenance costs:The machine has to be on all the time, and the electricity bill is money. If anything goes wrong with the system or software, you have to fix it yourself.

For most people who needStable, high volume, high quality IPFor business scenarios such as large-scale data collection, overseas marketing, and TikTok operations, it's more economical and cost-effective to use a professional proxy IP service provider directly. Here we have to mention ouripipgoUp.

Courtesy of ipipgoDynamic Residential Agentsrespond in singingStatic Residential AgentsIt is a perfect solution to these self-built proxy troubles above. It has a huge pool of IPs and dynamic residential proxies haveMore than 90 million IPs, located in more than 220 places around the world, the IPs are all from real home networks, very hidden and not easily recognized by websites. You can use them on demand, counting how much traffic you use, the IPs can be set to rotate automatically or remain unchanged for a period of time (sticky sessions), and the protocols are fully supported. Static residential proxies are much more stable and suitable for scenarios that require long-term fixed IPs, with high purity and availability of 99.9%.

To put it bluntly, by using ipipgo, you are directly equivalent to having a large, high-quality and someone to maintain a proxy IP network for you, without having to worry about your own hardware, network and IP sources.

Frequently Asked Questions QA

Q1: Is it safe to build my own agent? Will it be hacked?
A: The security depends on your configuration. If it's not configured properly, such as exposing the proxy port to the public network and not setting a password, it's really risky. Be sure to set up good access control lists (ACLs), strong password authentication, and try to limit the range of accessible IPs.

Q2: Why is my self-built proxy slow?
A: The reasons may be many. One is that your server itself has a small bandwidth; the second is that the network line is bad, such as domestic access to foreign servers; the third is that the proxy software is configured with insufficient cache or weak concurrent processing capability. You can try to optimize squid configuration, or consider using a server with better network quality.

Q3: How does ipipgo's proxy IP work? Is it complicated?
A: It's very simple. After registering for the package on the ipipgo website, you will get the address, port, username and password (if authentication is required) of the proxy server. Then in the software, browser or programming code you use, just fill these information into the proxy settings. The official website has detailed API documentation and usage guidelines.

Q4: What business scenarios is ipipgo suitable for?
A: The applicable scenes are very wide. For example:data acquisition(Crawler),Social Media Multi-Account Management(e.g. TikTok, Facebook),Verification of advertising effectiveness,Price monitoring,SEO Monitoring(ipipgo's SERP API does this) and so on. Any need to simulate the different regions of the user access, or need to avoid the IP is restricted scenarios, basically used.

Build your own or use a service?

After reading the above, you should have a good idea. If you justOccasional use.or want toLearning TechnologiesIt's a lot of fun to build an agent on your own, and you can gain a lot of knowledge.

But if you'recommercial useThe IP's are not the same as the IP's.Quantity, quality, stability, geographic locationIf you have high demands, then I truly recommend going straight to theipipgoThis type of professional service. The time and effort saved to focus on your core business is much more efficient. In particular, ipipgo's dynamic and static residential IPs, with abundant resources and stable service, can help you clear many obstacles in network access. You can choose the package flexibly according to your business needs, try it and the efficiency improvement will be obvious.