Glossary
Proxy jargon, in plain words.
From ASN to WebRTC: the terms you come across using proxies, antidetect tools and mobile networks.
- Antidetect browser
- A browser that creates isolated profiles, each with its own cookies and fingerprint, as if they were different devices. It's used with one proxy per profile. Learn more in Antidetect browsers.
- ASN
- Autonomous System Number: the number identifying a network on the Internet and the organisation running it. From an IP's ASN a website can tell whether it belongs to a data centre, a home ISP or a mobile carrier.
- Browser fingerprint
- The set of traits (screen, fonts, graphics card, language, timezone…) a website uses to recognise a device even without cookies.
- CGNAT
- Carrier-Grade NAT: the system carriers use to put many customers on the Internet behind the same public IP. It's why mobile IPs are rarely blocked. See What is CGNAT.
- CONNECT
- The method a client uses to ask an HTTP proxy to open a tunnel to a website. It's used for HTTPS sites: traffic inside the tunnel stays encrypted and the proxy can't read it.
- Datacenter proxy
- A proxy using an IP from a server in a data centre. Fast and cheap, but easy to detect and block. Compared in Mobile vs residential vs datacenter proxies.
- Dedicated IP
- A connection used by a single customer. With ProxyHub the smartphone and SIM are dedicated: no other customer shares your device.
- DNS
- The system that translates site names (like proxyhub.it) into IP addresses. Every connection starts with a DNS lookup.
- DNS leak
- When DNS lookups go out through your own connection instead of the proxy, revealing your ISP. Avoid it with remote DNS, for example SOCKS5 (socks5h). See How to test a proxy.
- Dual stack
- A connection with both an IPv4 and an IPv6 address. The site uses IPv6 if it supports it, IPv4 otherwise.
- HTTP proxy
- A proxy working at the web level, handling HTTPS sites through CONNECT tunnels. It's the most compatible type. See HTTP vs SOCKS5.
- IP address
- The number identifying a connection on the Internet. Every site you visit sees it. Find yours with What is my IP.
- IP geolocation
- An IP's estimated location according to public databases. The country is reliable, the city less so: mobile IPs are often located where the carrier routes them onto the Internet.
- IP rotation
- Changing the proxy's IP address. On a mobile proxy it happens by reconnecting the phone to the network. See IP rotation.
- IPv4
- The original version of IP addresses, 32 bits long (e.g. 93.184.216.34). Free addresses have run out, which is why carriers use CGNAT.
- IPv6
- The modern version of IP addresses, 128 bits long, with virtually unlimited addresses. Mobile networks assign it alongside an IPv4.
- ISP proxy
- A proxy with IPs registered to home Internet providers but hosted in data centres. Stable, but scarce and sometimes detectable.
- Latency
- The time a packet takes to travel there and back, in milliseconds. The lower it is, the faster pages respond. It's lower on 5G than on 4G.
- Mobile proxy
- A proxy that sends traffic out through a smartphone or SIM modem on a 4G/5G carrier network. See What are mobile proxies.
- Proxy
- A middleman between your software and websites: it forwards requests, and sites see the proxy's IP instead of yours.
- Rate limit
- A cap on how many requests a site accepts within a time window. Exceeding it leads to 429 errors, captchas or temporary blocks.
- Residential proxy
- A proxy using IPs of real people's home lines (fibre, DSL). Credible, usually pay-per-GB and shared.
- Rotation link
- A private URL that changes the proxy's IP when opened or called from a script. Keep it secret.
- SOCKS5
- A proxy protocol that forwards any TCP connection, not just web traffic, and can resolve DNS on the proxy side. See HTTP vs SOCKS5.
- Sticky session
- Keeping the same IP for a whole session. Needed whenever there's a login, a cart or a payment.
- TCP/IP fingerprint
- Network packet traits (TTL, TCP window, options) that reveal the operating system. It must match the one your browser declares. See TCP/IP fingerprint.
- TTL
- Time To Live: how many router hops a packet may take. The initial value depends on the operating system (128 for Windows, 64 for Linux, Android, macOS and iOS).
- User agent
- The string a browser sends with every request to state its name, version and operating system.
- WebRTC leak
- When WebRTC, the browser's video-call technology, reveals your real IP by bypassing the proxy. Test for it with What is my IP.