Per-connection versus timed rotation#
Most gateways rotate per connection: every new TCP connection gets a new exit, while requests reused over a keep-alive connection stay on the same one. Timed rotation keeps an exit for N minutes for all connections that share a session identifier, then moves on. Both are usually driven from the username, so the same account can do either per request.
What rotation does not do#
- It does not make a crawler polite: hundreds of requests a second still hit the target, only from many addresses. Keep per-domain rates reasonable.
- It does not hide browser fingerprints, cookies or account identity; those follow you across IPs.
- It does not guarantee a new country: without a location parameter the next exit can be anywhere in the pool.
How it works at ProxShift#
On ProxShift, rotation is the default: omit -sid- and every new connection to res.proxshift.com or mob.proxshift.com leaves from a new exit. Add -sid- and -ttl- to hold one exit from 1 minute to 24 hours.
Questions people ask#
Does every request get a new IP?
Every new connection does. HTTP clients that reuse connections (keep-alive) send several requests over one connection and therefore one exit; close the connection or disable keep-alive when you need a fresh IP per request.