USA residential proxies: state, city and session guide

Originally published on proxymint.

USA residential proxies route through US home connections. How state and city targeting works, which session type fits, and how to check the exit.

TL;DR

• A US residential proxy exits from a US home connection. The address belongs to a consumer ISP network, so databases classify it as residential and place it in the US, usually in a state and city too.
• State is the reliable level in the US. MaxMind places about 80% of US addresses in the right state but 66% within 50 km of the right city, and the state carries tax, licensing and regional promotions.
• Rotation follows the flow. Per-request rotation suits stateless pages, a 5 to 60 minute timer suits short cookie flows, and sticky holds while the home device stays online.
• The IP is one US signal of several. Time zone, locale and the DNS path have to match the exit, and Arizona and Hawaii skip daylight saving time.

Key takeaways

• Pick the level from the page. Use country for national pages, state when prices, tax or licensing change by state, and city only for local search, store stock or metro ads.
• Check exits in two databases first. Echo the IP, confirm a consumer ISP network and the state in two lookups, and confirm DNS resolves on the proxy side.
• Set time zone and locale per state. Run each US market in a fresh browser context with en-US and the IANA zone of the exit city.
• Set ZIP inside the site. A city exit plus the site's own store or ZIP picker reaches a ZIP-level page without ZIP targeting.
• Use static ISP for a long-lived US identity. A home device can go offline; one assigned US ISP address holds for the whole term.

Read the full guide on proxymint, with the commands, tables and sources.