Sometimes as an organization, you can decide to install one proxy accessible to several users at the same time. Such circumstances describe a shared proxies situation. The alternative is a private or dedicated proxy assigned to and used by a particular subscriber. If you want to dig deeper into the differences between shared and private proxies, you can learn more here.
In this article, we will take a closer look at shared proxies for businesses. The major considerations in choosing shared proxies lie in reliability, security, and cost implications.
Do you need shared proxies for your business?
Your business could require shared proxies if it has these tasks in its running or plans:
Search engine optimization
You need to create backlinks to improve your company’s Google rank. Creating many backlinks from the same domain will lead to Google marking you. It will flag and even block your company for spam.
Web scraping and web crawling
The website you intend to send your bot to could have some restrictions on web crawling. Such websites monitor the number of requests originating from a specific IP.
If your company needs bulk content, shared proxies, which host several IPs can help you. Through the many IP addresses possible, you can hit the same website many times with different IPs without getting flagged.
Advantages of shared proxies
Although several users within your business use the same proxy, the arrangement guarantees anonymity. The different users barely notice each other’s presence on the IP address. In some cases, the many IP addresses on the server can work to the advantage of your business. It becomes difficult to identify a user among the many on the proxy.
Shared proxy service supports several protocols including HTTP. No doubt you’re concerned about the security of such a connection for your business. It should be a relief that the requirement of authentication provides safety online for your business.
Shared proxies cost less because of its many users who share its maintenance cost. Not only are they cheap, but you can also access some for free. Although the cheap version might compromise your business’ image and security online, it’s efficient for web browsing tasks.
Their low cost makes them apt for trial purposes. It’s another pro that they also work remarkably well for scraping. It helps when you need a geo-unblocking advantage for web crawling for your business. Using it you can access information restricted to some countries.
On staff management, a shared proxy enables corporates to control the websites accessible to their employees during work hours. You can configure your proxy settings to filter out and block sites that cause distractions such as movie streaming sites and gaming sites.
Using numerous IP addresses gives you the freedom of snooping on your competition without them knowing it. Rotating domains masks your identity and can also hide your corporate online strategies from unwelcome attention.
Disadvantages of shared proxies
Some drawbacks that can affect your business while on shared servers include:
- Sometimes some of the users misuse the proxy by spamming others or through other malicious intents like hacking and phishing. If regulators trace such activities to your shared proxy, they hold your business equally liable since you share bandwidth with the criminals.
- Shared proxies generate the same or related IP addresses for the users. If a user gets banned for subversive activities while on the same proxy as your business, your business gets taken out too.
- Some major social networks do not allow access to users on a shared proxy. That fact hinders your business from scraping those websites and platforms for crucial data to grow your business prospects.
- Some proxy providers offer a substantial number of IP addresses per package. If your business needs only a handful of such addresses, you will find the packages available waste of money. For instance, if a provider offers a package of a minimum of 50 IPs, and you only need 10 proxies for your business, you subscribe for the package and waste the unused 40 IPs.
- Shared proxies expose your business to a dark world. If the shared proxy happens to be public, another user can monitor your browsing activity. Possible outcomes of this include the harvesting of your business’ private information and details of financial transactions.
- Some data centers do not clear their log files daily. That means that web crawlers can locate and follow your digital footprint. They do that by searching the log files of your browsing from major search engines.
- It slows down your activity because of the many users on the server simultaneously. Such shared hosting also attracts captcha blocks. Your screen will also hang or freeze if you have many users on that server.
- If you decide to use free shared servers, you will have to contend with recurrent interruptions from online ad posts.
In the final analysis, you know the internet needs and the environment of your business best. When choosing your shared proxy provider, but security and reliability high on your list.
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