What Is an IP Address?
Every device connected to the internet has an IP address. It's a unique number assigned by your internet service provider that identifies your connection. Think of it as your return address on every piece of mail you send. Without it, websites wouldn't know where to send their responses.
There are two versions: IPv4 (like 192.168.1.1) and IPv6 (a longer format). Most websites and services still primarily use IPv4. Your ISP assigns your IP, and it typically reflects your general geographic area. It doesn't reveal your exact street address, but it does show your city, region, and country.
The important thing to understand: your IP address is not private. Every website, API, and service you connect to can see it. They can log it, track it, and use it to identify returning visitors. This is why proxies and VPNs exist.
What Is a Proxy?
A proxy server sits between your device and the websites you visit. Instead of connecting directly, your request goes to the proxy first. The proxy then forwards it to the destination using its own IP address. The website sees the proxy's IP, not yours.
This serves two purposes. First, it hides your real IP from the destination. Second, it lets you appear to connect from a different location. If the proxy server is in London, the website thinks you're in London.
Not all proxies are equal. The type of IP address the proxy uses determines how detectable it is. This is where the distinction between residential and datacenter proxies matters.
Residential vs Datacenter IPs
Datacenter IPs come from hosting providers and cloud services like AWS, Google Cloud, and DigitalOcean. They're fast and cheap, but they're also easy to identify. Websites maintain databases of known datacenter IP ranges. When they see traffic from one, they know it's not a regular user. Many services block or restrict datacenter IPs entirely.
Residential IPs are assigned by real internet service providers (Comcast, Vodafone, BT, and so on) to real home connections. When a website sees a residential IP, it looks exactly like a normal person browsing from their house. There's no hosting provider fingerprint to flag.
For anything where detection matters (managing multiple accounts, web scraping, ad verification, price monitoring), residential IPs are the professional choice. They're more expensive than datacenter IPs, but they work where datacenter IPs get blocked.
How to Hide Your IP Address
There are a few ways to mask your IP. VPNs are the most common for general privacy. They encrypt your traffic and route it through a server, replacing your IP with the VPN server's IP. However, most VPN IPs are well-known and flagged by websites. They're fine for streaming geo-restricted content, but unreliable for professional use.
Datacenter proxies are another option. They're fast and inexpensive, but as mentioned above, they're easy to detect. Most sophisticated websites will flag or block them.
For professional use, residential proxies are the most effective option. They use real ISP-assigned IPs, so your connection looks like a normal home user. Combined with features like sticky sessions (keeping the same IP for a set period) and city-level geo-targeting, residential proxies give you the most control and the lowest detection rates. ScaleProxy offers 85M+ residential IPs with unmetered bandwidth starting at $79/mo, or you can test any plan with the $10 for 10 days trial.