Top 5 industry tips on avoiding IP blocks with Multilogin and Bright Data

Each website you access implements blocking techniques to protect its resources and users from unwanted visitors or abnormal activity. Whereas unusual activity means someone from one location trying to buy products with a credit card issued in a different area or even as extreme as someone trying to hack the site.

Conventional ways of avoiding these types of unwanted activity include requiring a visitor to sign-in to an account, to answer a question or serving a captcha such as rearranging a photo. IP-based blocking techniques are applied to enhance user experience. They include flagging, banning or disabling accounts based on specific parameters.

By understanding and avoiding these standard IP blocking techniques, you can prevent operational obstacles and focus on your accounts.

1. Understand your target site

Requirements for every website differ. Sites develop their blocking methods based on what their users can do on the site. Are they required to sign-in? Can they only view pages while posting is limited unless they create an account?

Instagram, for example, focuses on the user-agent with the majority of its users logging in on their mobile phones.
Facebook emphasizes geolocation as people log in from both mobile phones and desktops alike.
Craigslist is a location-specific platform and limits the number of accounts, ads, and more, from a single IP address.

Sites that sell sneakers and tickets limit the number of purchases per household, relying on IP. They block numerous purchases from a single user based on the IP address.

Knowing your websites of interest and what they focus on is the key to avoid blocking techniques.

2. Ensure your settings meet all the requirements from websites

Site requirements consist of all the information requested by the site and the information your computer sends in response. Websites use this data to provide a better experience by displaying content in the proper format or allowing a website to save stuff for you in a shopping cart. The data collected by the site creates a unique identifier for that user. This identifier is known as the user’s device fingerprint.

Fingerprints can reveal a surprising amount of information about the user. This includes the browser user agent and browser minor version, operating system and version, content-encoding and language, user browsing history, user browsing pattern, list of plugins and fonts, screen resolution and color depth, graphics card type, font rendering, Java version, canvas rendering results, WebGL renderer, audio API, battery info, device IDs, WebRTC and the IP from the network.

Although it may seem daunting, there are ways to overcome identification. Multilogin has revolutionized the approach by offering entirely separate browsing environments. Rather than masking, we replace your fingerprints and providing a different one. Using the Multilogin application allows users to forget about the small things and focus on what matters the most – operations.

3. Use the right IP type and settings

First and foremost, the right IP type will make a world of difference when accessing a site and getting a high success rate of your task on that website.
Bright Data, the largest residential proxy network in the world, provides over 40 million IPs and their rotation across static residential networks.

For managing accounts, it is recommended to use a static residential IP. It is a real-user IP assigned from an ISP for commercial use. This type of IP allows you to apply one IP, per account, and it will not rotate which is excellent for filling out forms, posting and commenting. Static Residential IPs solve the problem of IPs rotating mid-session which can cause you to lose a purchase or have an account flagged.

Rotating residential IPs is perfect when you are using a bot or crawler and have automated your operations. They can be targeted by country, city, carrier, and ASN. It allows bypassing location-based blockades such as Craigslist posting.

Some sites implement limitations on a maximal number of requests. It means you can make a certain number of requests within a specified time frame.

If you exceed this limit, you are served a captcha or become blocked altogether. To overcome this time-based block, merely rotate IPs based on a certain number of requests.

Some sites implement both max request and location blocks. To solve this, use an IP with the city and/or ASN targeting and rotate between these IPs depending on the number of requests.

4. Do not break the site's TOS (Terms of Service)

Although TOS sound like something you may need a lawyer for, most sites have simple TOS to clarify what they consider as acceptable use.

For example, Facebook states in its TOS that the advertisements you want to display must match the geolocation of the account you are using. In this circumstance, you want to make sure you are using a city-targeted IP and not country-targeted one.

Merely misunderstanding or forgetting the site's TOS can cause blocking or disabling the account. Simply avoid breaching by complying to website's rules and regulations, rather than automatically hitting ‘continue’ or ‘agree.’

5. Do not overload the server

Almost every website you access implements server protection. It is used to enhance the user experience, ensure the speed of the site, and protect it from hackers.

The most common attack on a server is known as a DDoS – Distributed Denial of Service. DDoS means using multiple IPs, servers or connections to target and overload the same site or server, causing it to shut down. Although this is overloading at its most extreme form, simply having too many concurrent connections accessing the same site can cause an issue. Yes, we want to work fast but consider the size of the site and what it can handle to keep your accounts and operations running smoothly.

By using the right automation software, you can emulate multiple real users and manage multiple accounts. Stop worrying about your device fingerprints, browsing environment, or both and let Multilogin do the work for you.

With Multilogin in combination with Bright Data's networks, you can run any scale on an online business without needing to worry about your accounts being compromised.