Databay field notes
Proxy guides, experiments & operator notes
Engineering guides and first-party measurements for people operating proxy-backed data systems.
All articles
70 entries
Static vs. Rotating Proxies: Session Design & Cost Lab
Choose a static, sticky, or rotating proxy from the state your authorized workflow must preserve. Model continuity, retries, and cost...
12 min readRead
How to Test a Free Proxy Safely
Use unknown public proxies only for disposable, non-sensitive diagnostics against systems you are authorized to test.
3 min readRead
Responsible Web Data Collection: Authorization and Controls
A practical control framework for authorized web data collection: source rights, robots.txt, privacy, load, provenance, and stop conditions.
5 min readRead
Proxies for Price Monitoring: An Ecommerce Workflow
Use proxies for price monitoring with an authorized ecommerce workflow that normalizes offers, controls network location, and scores a...
12 min readRead
Web Scraping With Proxies: An Authorized, Reliable Workflow
Design authorized data collection around APIs, source rules, a domain-level budget, stop conditions, and quality checks; a proxy is only...
4 min readRead
HTTP vs SOCKS5 Proxies: DNS, TLS, UDP & Client Tests
Choose HTTP or SOCKS5 from the client behavior you need, not an OSI-layer slogan. Compare handshakes, DNS location, TLS, authentication...
15 min readRead
How Residential Proxies Work: Architecture and Routing
A network-layer explanation of ISP-origin proxy routing, gateway selection, session continuity, consent, and the signals a destination...
6 min readRead
What Is a Proxy Server? Trace Every Connection Step
A proxy server accepts one connection and creates or relays another. Trace HTTP, CONNECT, SOCKS5, DNS, TLS, and reverse-proxy paths in a...
12 min readRead
Proxy vs VPN: A Practical Routing, Encryption & Trust Test
Choose between a proxy and VPN by tracing which apps, DNS requests, and IP routes each one changes. Includes a route map and a...
10 min readRead
Residential vs Datacenter Proxies: Evidence-Based Comparison
Compare ISP-origin and hosting-network proxy routes by measurable origin, location controls, session behavior, latency, sourcing, and cost.
4 min readRead
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