Regardless of how you acquired your proxies, you should test them. Whether you bought the IPs from a proxy server provider or found a proxy list online, you should make sure they work properly.
Most proxy providers offer a money-back guarantee if you’re not happy with the product, but it only lasts for a short period. That’s why you should check the proxies as soon as you buy them.
Location, speed, and proxy uptime are the main factors to consider when testing. Testing will help you ensure the proxies are compatible with your software and allow targeting the locations that you need. Testing uptime will also help you avoid disappointment when you start working on data-gathering projects, whether it’s social media scraping or other tasks.
You can test proxies with free or paid tools, IP checkers, or online IP databases. Different tools offer various features that will help you ensure your proxies are working correctly.
Below you’ll find a list of different ways to test proxies, including free and paid proxy testers.
1. Online IP checkers
The main function of a proxy is shielding your actual IP address and routing your internet traffic through a proxy server. This means your IP address should change when you connect to a proxy server. You can use an online IP checker to find out whether that’s the case.
Most online IP checkers are free and they can identify whether you’re using a proxy or connecting through an actual IP address. To ensure this works properly, you need to know your original IP address. Once you visit an online IP checker’s site, it will display your IP address, and you should be able to recognize whether it’s a proxy IP address or your actual IP.
Online IP checkers can also reveal essential information about your proxy, such as location, HTTP headers, and software that you’re using.
While most IP checkers can identify whether you’re using a proxy or an actual IP address, in general, online IP checkers are pretty limited. If you want more robust proxy testing, you should use more advanced tools.
2. IP databases
IP databases contain lists of IP addresses and information related to them. You can use this data to learn about the IP address location, whether it’s connected to a domain, and the type of proxy, if it is one.
Some proxies can be blacklisted from specific targets. They can be blocked by the proxy provider or by the target website. If you acquire free proxies, they are the most likely to be blacklisted on most of the popular sites.
Testing proxies on an IP database will help you determine if your proxies have been blocked on any target websites. For example, IP2Location Database allows checking proxies to see if their IP addresses have been blacklisted. You can test a small number of IPs for free or purchase a paid plan if you need to verify even more.
In general, an IP database can help you learn about your proxy location, associated domain name, if your IP is associated with one, and usage type, which identifies whether your IP comes from a data center or if it’s a residential proxy.
3. FOGLDN Proxy Tester
FOGLDN Proxy Tester is a completely proxy tester. This tool is great for monitoring proxy speed as it gives direct ping times to any website in the world. With this tool, you’ll see how much time it takes to connect to a specific website. Additionally, FOGLDN Proxy Tester works on any type of proxy.
Users often turn to FOGLDN Proxy Tester if they want to test the speed of their sneaker proxies since the tool monitors the latency of proxies. Sneaker copping requires ultra fast proxies, so this data can determine whether proxies are good enough for the task.
FOGLDN Proxy Tester is easy to use. The tool works on devices with both Mac and Windows operating systems. All you need to do is download the software, set it up on your device and add a proxy list. Then, enter the URL of your target site and test the proxies.
While FOGLDN Proxy Tester is a great choice for proxy speed testing, it also has some limitations. The tool doesn’t provide any information about the proxy type or IP address location. If your test fails, you won’t get much data about it, so you won’t know why exactly it failed. You also can’t control how many requests to send and at what intervals.
If you want a thorough proxy check, use FOGLDN Proxy Tester together with other IP checkers, which can identify the proxy location, type, and other relevant information.
4. Hidemy.name
Hidemy.name is a free proxy checker powered by smart algorithms that can check your proxy performance and share various information about your IP addresses. The tool can determine your proxy type, location (country and city), speed, and level of anonymity.
The tool features four degrees of anonymity:
No Anonymity - you have zero protection over your identity. The server knows your actual IP address and that you’re using a proxy to shield it.
Low Anonymity - your actual IP address is hidden but the server knows you’re using a proxy.
Average Anonymity - the target server is aware you’re connecting through a proxy. The server sees an IP address and thinks it’s yours, but it’s not your accurate IP.
*High Anonymity *- the server cannot see your actual IP address, and it doesn’t know you’re connecting through a proxy.
This proxy checker verifies proxy lists that it has gathered from private and public IP databases and various websites across the world. Hidemy.name is an advanced tool that allows you to check multiple proxy features and export the data that you need.
5. Proxy Verifier
Proxy Verifier is a web-based IP checker. This tool doesn’t require installing any software. You can simply visit their site and check your IPs. To add to the legitimacy, this open-source project was initiated by Yahoo Developer’s Network.
The main downside to this proxy checker is that it only supports HTTP proxies. However, contrary to other proxy testers, this tool checks both incoming and outgoing proxy traffic by simulating both client and proxy server devices.
Proxy Verifier allows checking multiple proxies simultaneously. It also features a convenient and easy-to-use dashboard. So if you want to test HTTP proxies, this proxy checker may be the one to go to.
6. InfoByIP
InfoByIP features a free proxy checker. The tool can verify the availability and anonymity of your proxies, and it supports HTTP, SOCKS4 and SOCKS5 proxies.
The tool is web-based, which means you won’t need to install their software. All you need to do is enter your proxy in IP:Port format, choose its type, and click “Check Proxy”.
InfoByIP is simple to use but also quite limited. However, if you only want to learn about proxy availability and anonymity, then this free checker will work just fine.
7. Angry IP Scanner
Angry IP Scanner is an open-source network scanner that works across different platforms. It scans IP addresses, ports, and local networks. The tool is free, and it has a number of features.
This tool can be used to test a proxy’s uptime, determine the location, port, etc. It features a comment-line interface, which makes the tool easy to use. One of the main advantages of Angry IP Scanner is that it allows exporting data in various formats.
The tool doesn’t require any installation, but you need to download it. According to Angry IP Scanner’s website, the tool has been downloaded more than 29 million times and is used by enterprises of various sizes, government agencies, and banks.
Regardless of whether that is true or a marketing trick, the tool does its job and is easy to use.
8. Nmap
Nmap is a free and well-documented network mapping tool that can be used as a proxy checker. To test proxies, you’ll need to provide IP addresses or packets, and the tool will return information about your proxies. You’ll be able to test your proxy speed and anonymity.
The tool features advanced network mapping techniques and can handle large proxy networks. Nmap works on all the most popular operating systems and also supports less frequently used ones such as Amiga, NetBSD, Sun OS, etc.
Conclusion
Users test proxies to learn about proxy speed, find out what locations they come from, and make sure they have a high enough uptime. Some proxy server providers encourage proxy testing and offer a money-back guarantee if their proxies don’t meet your standards. That’s one of the reasons you should test proxies. But a more important reason is that testing proxies will help you run your web scraping projects more successfully.
You can test proxies with a free or paid proxy checker. You’ll come across various tools online that will help you determine your proxy speed and anonymity. More advanced tools will let you test multiple proxies at once, while other tools will even indicate the degree of anonymity your proxies provide.
Hence, testing proxies is easy when you find a good proxy tester. And it’s absolutely worth it, as IP performance can define how smoothly your web scraping projects will run.
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