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Disrupting the largest residential proxy network

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Re: Disrupting the largest residential proxy network

#21

Post by gruez »

direwolf20 wrote: post #12
packetslave wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Have you tried it? Every new account will be shadowbanned and if it's shared you often get blank page 429. None of this was true before the API shutdown.

>Every new account will be shadowbanned

That's not the same as "blocks all data to non-residential IP's"?

>if it's shared you often get blank page 429. None of this was true before the API shutdown.

See my other comment. I agree there's a non-zero amount of VPNs that are banned from reddit, but it's also not particularly hard to find a VPN that's not banned on reddit.

Re: Disrupting the largest residential proxy network

#22

Post by xnx »

wincy wrote: post #11
kotaKat wrote: post #5

I'm actually a little shocked seeing that there was a WebOS variant of the residential proxying SDK endpoint. Does that mean there might be a bit more unchecked malware lurking behind the scenes in the LG ecosystem? Personally I'm surprised they didn't have a Samsung option.

I keep my brand new LG C5 totally disconnected from the internet and use my Apple TV for movie watching. I’m not going to trust a company like LG to secure their devices.

> trust a company like LG to secure their devices.

They have an interest in securing their devices so they can sell proxy service themselves.

Re: Disrupting the largest residential proxy network

#23

Post by piskov »

packetslave wrote: post #10
londons_explore wrote: post #9

We need more residential proxies, not less. I've had enough of companies saying "you're connecting from an AWS IP address, therefore you aren't allowed in, or must buy enterprise licensing". Reddit is an example which totally blocks all data to non-residential IP's. I want exactly the same content visible no matter who you are or where you are connecting from, and a robust network of residential proxies is a stepping…

[flagged]

Yes you do.

Private VPS for personal VPN in Netherlands (digital ocean), then Hungary (some small local DC) — both are blocked from day one.

> You've been blocked by network security. To continue, log in to your Reddit account or use your developer token. If you think you've been blocked by mistake, file a ticket below and we'll look into it.

Re: Disrupting the largest residential proxy network

#24

Post by SOTGO »

direwolf20 wrote: post #16

All of this sounds legal, so on what basis did they get them shut down?

I haven't looked at any court documents, but the WSJ article from Wednesday reported that "Last year, Google sued the anonymous operators of a network of more than 10 million internet-connected televisions, tablets and projectors, saying they had secretly pre-installed residential proxy software on them... an Ipidea spokeswoman acknowledged in an email that the company and its partners had engaged in “relatively aggressive market expansion strategies” and “conducted promotional activities in inappropriate venues (e.g., hacker forums)...”"

There was also a botnet, Kimwolf, that apparently leveraged an exploit to use the residential proxy service, so it may be related to Ipidea not shutting them down.

Re: Disrupting the largest residential proxy network

#26

Post by trollbridge »

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #4

> These efforts to help keep the broader digital ecosystem safe supplement the protections we have to safeguard Android users on certified devices. We ensured Google Play Protect, Android’s built-in security protection, automatically warns users and removes applications known to incorporate IPIDEA SDKs, and blocks any future install attempts. Nice to see Google Play Protect actually serving a purpose for once.

Yeah, it serves the purpose of blocking this kind of proxy traffic that isn't in Google's personal best interests.

Only Google is allowed to scrape the web.

Re: Disrupting the largest residential proxy network

#27

Post by interloxia »

gruez wrote: post #21
direwolf20 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried it? Every new account will be shadowbanned and if it's shared you often get blank page 429. None of this was true before the API shutdown.

>Every new account will be shadowbanned That's not the same as "blocks all data to non-residential IP's"? >if it's shared you often get blank page 429. None of this was true before the API shutdown. See my other comment. I agree there's a non-zero amount of VPNs that are banned from reddit, but it's also not particularly hard to find a VPN that's not banned on reddit.

Probably not hard but my poor little innocent VPS at Hetzer that I have had for years is denied and that makes me sad.

Re: Disrupting the largest residential proxy network

#28

Post by BoredPositron »

londons_explore wrote: post #9

We need more residential proxies, not less. I've had enough of companies saying "you're connecting from an AWS IP address, therefore you aren't allowed in, or must buy enterprise licensing". Reddit is an example which totally blocks all data to non-residential IP's. I want exactly the same content visible no matter who you are or where you are connecting from, and a robust network of residential proxies is a stepping…

I still "run" a small ISP with a few thousand residential ips from my scraping days. The requirements are laughable and costs were negligible in the early 2000s.

Re: Disrupting the largest residential proxy network

#29

Post by dvngnt_ »

packetslave wrote: post #10
londons_explore wrote: post #9

We need more residential proxies, not less. I've had enough of companies saying "you're connecting from an AWS IP address, therefore you aren't allowed in, or must buy enterprise licensing". Reddit is an example which totally blocks all data to non-residential IP's. I want exactly the same content visible no matter who you are or where you are connecting from, and a robust network of residential proxies is a stepping…

[flagged]

there are several times where I've had to disable PIA to access reddit's login page

Re: Disrupting the largest residential proxy network

#30

Post by Aurornis »

londons_explore wrote: post #9

We need more residential proxies, not less. I've had enough of companies saying "you're connecting from an AWS IP address, therefore you aren't allowed in, or must buy enterprise licensing". Reddit is an example which totally blocks all data to non-residential IP's. I want exactly the same content visible no matter who you are or where you are connecting from, and a robust network of residential proxies is a stepping…

> I want exactly the same content visible no matter who you are or where you are connecting from

The reason those IP addresses get blocked is not because of "who" is connecting, but "what"

Traffic from datacenter address ranges to sites like Reddit is almost entirely bots and scrapers. They can put a tremendous load on your site because many will try to run their queries as fast as they can with as many IPs as they can get.

Blocking these IP addresses catches a few false positives, but it's an easy step to make botting and scraping a little more expensive. Residential proxies aren't all that expensive, but now there's a little line item bill that comes with their request volume that makes them think twice.

> We need more residential proxies, not less

Great, you can always volunteer your home IP address as a start. There are services that will pay you a nominal amount for it, even.

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