Once you purchase a Rotating proxies (IPv4) package, you'll be able to view the access data for it. In your dashboard, hit 'View' on the desired package in order to access it.

Hint: if you still haven't read our article about what a backconnect entry proxy is, we highly recommend you do so.

The 'Quick Access' tab allows you to configure credentials in order to quickly access your proxy. The changes you make in this tab are not permanent and will only reflect in the 'Username', 'Password' and 'Proxy URI' fields.

In order to connect to our servers and use our proxies, you're presented with two options: user:pass authorisation or IP authentication. Let's take a look at both of them.

Software that interacts with proxies often includes features that allow users to authenticate via a username and password. The software typically supports configuring proxies by specifying the proxy server's address and port, along with the corresponding username and password.

In order to connect, simply copy the Username, Password, Host and Port fields in your software.

Some programs may allow for the use of "proxy strings" or "proxy URIs". You can find them just below the previous screen.

Hint: a quick and easy way to test out your proxy is to use cURL. What's cURL?

For example, changing our Geotargeting settings will change the 'Username' and 'Proxy URI' fields. Let's generate the credentials for a Rotating proxy that gives us IPs located in London, United Kingdom.
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Let's perform a request and let's take a look at what IP do we get.

As expected, we can see that this request had an IP originating from London. Let's now try to make another request with the same username.

By repeating the command with the same credentials, we can see that we still got an IP in London, but this time around the IP address rotated and we got a different one.

Right below the Geotargeting settings we're shown the 'Rotation' section. This section answers for how our proxy will behave in terms of IP changes. In the previous example, we've seen how different connections have different IP Addresses: that means the proxy is in Rotating Mode.

But what if we want to stick with the same IP Address for a while? After all, if we're using our proxy to navigate or, for example, manage different Browser Profiles, it would be best to keep the same IP Address for a while, as loading a single web page can generate anywhere from 20 or more requests on average and all of them coming from different origins may not guarantee a correct operation of the website we're visiting.

In order to generate a proxy that sticks with the same IP for all incoming requests for a while, we can set our Rotation to Sticky.

Once we changed our Rotation setting, we can also notice how the 'Username' field has changed:

The added part, 'sid-XXXXXXXX' where X is a digit (0-9) is called a Sticky Session. Adding this part with a unique number helps our servers identify and keep track of connections that need to stick with the same IP Address for a while.

How long do Sticky Sessions last for? It's hard to tell. Keep in mind our Residential IPv4 Proxies Network is made up of ethically-sourced IP addresses coming from real home connections. As in any household, an internet connection can go offline at any point in time, or simply change its IP address: once that happens, your Sticky Session will get a new address. You can be sure that a Sticky Session will remain 'glued' to the same IP Address for as long as it is online, up to a maximum of 24 hours.

What happens when the IP associated with a Sticky Session goes offline? If you're using specific Geotargeting settings, you can be sure that another IP from that same area will take its place. If you're not using any Geotargeting settings, a random IP from our pool (network) will take its place.

Let's perform two subsequent requests with our proxy with a Sticky Session.

As we can see, both requests have the same IP Address.

Some software may not support user:pass Authorisation and therefore only provide you with a Host (Address) and Port option to connect. In that case, you may find that our IP Auth option will be useful to accomplish your tasks. IP auth also allows for an extra layer of security: you may want to be using your proxies only from your home connection, preventing unauthorised access.

In order to use your package with IP auth, all you have to do is to add a Trusted Source. A Trusted Source is the IP Address of the device or network you plan on connecting from. As you may notice, we display your current machine's IP address in the bottom left section. In order to add it as a Trusted Source:

1) Hit 'Add'

2) Enter the IP address in the newly displayed field
3) To confirm your changes, hit 'Save'.

After completing these steps, we can see that the 'Host' and 'Port' fields now show up:

Remember to hit 'Save' everytime you add or remove a Trusted Source.

Disclaimer: a Trusted Source can only be associated to one active Subscription. Adding the same Trusted Source to another Subscription will remove it from the previous.

We can now use these values in our software. For the sake of our guide, I will make use of the Example cURL command (What's cURL?).

We can see that we did not provide a username and password in our proxy options (-x) but we were successfully able to connect to our gateway and transmit our request through a proxied IP address different from ours.

We can also select appropriate Geotargeting settings, which will be automatically backed up in our servers once you change them on your screen.

Let's execute a curl command to test this out.

As we can see, once we selected 'London' inside our Subscription page, the Geotargeting settings were applied and now we're able to get a different IP located in the English capital.

This section answers for how our proxy will behave in terms of IP changes. When our Subscription is set to Rotating, every request will have a different IP address. Let's send two requests using cURL.

As expected, each time we transmitted our request with a different IP Address. On the other hand, if we wish to keep the same IP Address for a while we will need to set our Rotation setting to Sticky.

This setting is also automatically synchronized with our server. To test it out, let's send two requests via cURL as per usual.

As we can see, both requests had the same IP Address.

But what if at some point, we want to rotate the sticky session to a different IP?

The Change IP url is a specific endpoint that allows you to manually trigger an IP change for your proxy session. When you make a request to this URL (aka opening it in your browser, for example), THUNDERPROXY will switch the IP address that is currently being used for your connection. This is particularly useful when you're using sticky sessions, where the IP address remains the same for an extended period, and you want to refresh it without waiting for it to rotate on its own.

Disclaimer: The Change IP url will only have an effect while using your Subscription in Sticky mode with IP Auth.

Certain software allows for the use of a Change IP url: in that case, instead of manually accessing the link in your browser, the software will make a request to that link on your behalf and the your Subscription will begin using a different Sticky session with a different IP Address.

Let's take a look together at how Change IP url works by performing one request, then hitting the Change IP url in our browser, and then performing another request.

Let's open our Change IP url in our browser. A screen containing just 'OK' will greet us, letting us know the IP has changed successfully.
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Let's now test again, and see that the IP has in fact changed
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This section is still a work in progress and will be updated soon.