Millions of people are surfing the web each day. Shopping, paying bills, using social media, reading news, and many more daily tasks are unimaginable without a web browser. But the internet is a quickly changing place. It’s no longer as private and secure as it used to be.
The simple act of opening a web browser and entering a URL is not enough to stay efficient. You also must guard yourself from tracking and act on bypassing geo-restrictions. Implementing proxies into your daily routine can solve these issues. Indian proxies, specifically, are a very promising solution.
What are proxies?
Proxy servers (or simply proxies) are devices acting as intermediaries for other devices connected to the internet. They provide an extra step in the process of sending and receiving data. When you need to download something or access a web page, you can command a proxy to do it in your place.
Such a process might seem unnecessary and even redundant for someone who is unfamiliar with how the internet works. Simply put, each time you connect to a web server, your device sends a request and, with it, includes a bunch of information about you. Most important of it is the IP address – a unique string of characters assigned to your home network by an Internet Service Provider (ISP).
Just from the IP address, every website can tell what ISP you are using and your approximate location. It allows them to service your device but also enables websites to track your activity and select what information is available to you. IP addresses are the basis for most other online anti-privacy measures, such as device cookies, fingerprinting, web beacons, and others.
Proxies compared to other privacy tools
Shielding your original IP address from the prying eyes of governments and corporations is the first step toward a freer internet. The fight doesn’t end there, however, as you’ll still need additional software to fend off other tracking measures. Unlike VPNs, proxies provide consumers with a fighting chance against these intrusions.
The main advantage of proxies over other privacy tools is their compatibility. With proxies, you get free access to the proxy server – its credentials and password. You can use them with a variety of software – from operating systems and anti-detect browsers to automation software and web scraping tools.
Types of proxies
No matter what use case you need proxies for, there is a complementing proxy type. They can be shared with other users or dedicated to one user. The IP addresses can rotate or be static. Proxies can also use different protocols (HTTPS and SOCKS5 are the most popular for proxies). However, the main distinction comes from the origin of the IP addresses.
Residential proxies are hosted on physical devices in household areas. Such IPs are the most legitimate type as they are verified by an ISP to be owned by a private person. However, depending on the setup, they might be slow.
Datacenter proxies are created virtually on powerful servers meant for commercial services such as hosting websites, storing data, or running applications. Datacenter IPs use business-tier internet, which makes them even faster, but it also allows websites to recognize them as proxies relatively easily.
However, no matter what proxy type you choose, the most impactful decision is to choose a suitable proxy location for your needs. The performance, legitimacy, and all other factors greatly depend on it. After much trial and error, I found Indian proxy servers to be superior.
Why are Indian proxies superior?
It’s difficult to make a strong argument in favor of Indian proxies as most people don’t associate with a high-tech, fast internet destination needed for fast proxy servers. Yet. It’s the country with the largest population, not just physically but online as well.
Large cities in India, such as Delhi, have exponentially growing internet speeds and the number of internet users. To service such a large pool of users, most established companies have their servers somewhere nearby. The performance compared to other Asian countries is unmatched.
The only place in Asia that could compare is China, but the proxy servers market is complicated there as the government has imposed a lot of restrictions on the internet. Using proxies from there is unlikely to give you good results outside and inside the country. This is opposite to what you’ll find when using proxies from India.
India is a largely English-speaking country. Most English content online is accessible from this country. I haven’t found many differences compared to a proxy from Europe except for the price. Indian proxies have perhaps the best price-to-value ratio when it comes to proxy servers.
Indian proxies are as fast as Western ones, even faster if you need to access Southeast Asian servers. At the same time, if you buy proxy services with a lot of Indian IPs, you can get a much better custom offer. The exact offer depends on the amount and the provider, but, in my experience, when purchasing proxies, Indian ones are cheaper than those in Western Europe or the USA.
Two ways proxies improve your web browsing
Online anonymity can only be achieved by hiding your IP address. Indian proxies can achieve this while also providing you affordable access to English-speaking content. Since the number of Indian IPs on the internet is growing exponentially, you’ll have the best chance to blend in.
Geo-location change is an important part of accessing the internet more freely. Websites tend to show different information based on their expectations from the visitor’s location. For example, a visitor from the US or Europe is more likely to see higher pricing. If you change your IP location to India, you might save money.
Once you understand the advantages of proxies and start looking for ways to implement them, various configuration options will come to mind. Indian proxies are, in my opinion, the best option for anonymous browsing, bypassing geo-restrictions, and increasing the general security of your network.