How to rotate proxy servers in Selenium/Python?

A proxy helps in hiding your IP address when online. But sometimes, you might need to get a new IP or rotate proxy servers using Python. Most systems are built in such a way that they can detect IP addresses. When many requests are from the same IP address within a short time, the IP address is marked and sometimes banned. The only option you are left with is creating different IPs, which cannot be easy if the server is highly protected. In this case, the best thing to do is to make your requests through a proxy server. The proxy server helps maintain your original requests, and their target server will only see their IP address. In this case, your IP address will be invisible.

What is a rotating proxy?

A rotating proxy is a proxy that assigns a new IP address from the pool of proxies for every connection request. This means that you can send 2000 requests to the same site simultaneously and get 2000 different IP addresses. Meanwhile, the target will only get one IP for each request. Rotating proxies enable tasks such as web scraping, data mining, and indexing. Some rotating proxies switch IPs after every request.

This proxy type helps give you the best IP address by default. Some proxies require that you key in the username and password. Such proxies can be difficult to set up. This is why you need to rotate the proxy in Selenium/Python.

How do you rotate proxy in Python?

1. Get a proxy list

The first thing to do is to get a proxy list from a proxy provider. The best proxies are data-center or residential proxies. Free proxies that are advertised online most of the time don't work. Therefore, you should purchase a data center or residential proxy from a reputable source. After getting proxies from the site, export the proxies by copying or downloading the proxy list and saving them in a text file format.

2. Import the Python library

The next thing you have to do is to import Python modules. Most computers and laptops have Python installed, but if yours doesn't have one, you can install the Python module.

3. Create a function

This is where you send a request function using the HTTP proxy since most free proxies do not work since they are blacklisted. HTTP proxy tends to be more secure and fast to run with.

4. Read the text file

Here you have to read your proxy list text file and save it to the variable named proxies.

  if _name_ == "_main_":
    with open('list_proxy.txt', 'r') as file:
    Proxies = file.readlines ()

5. Use a For Loop

Here you have to use the request module to create a session in Python and use a for Loop through the proxy, then pass the proxy to the send_request function.

  With requests.Session () as session:
  For proxy in proxies:
  send_request(session, proxy)

6. Run the script

The final stage is to run the script to get the output. You should save and run the file. The output will be as follows.

  Import requests
  def send_requests(session, proxy):
  try:
    Response = session.get(??http://httptop(response.json())
  Except:
    pass

  if _name_ == "_main_":
    with open('list_proxy.txt', 'r') as file:
      proxies = file.readlines()
      with requests.session() as session:
        for proxy in proxies:
        send_request(session, proxy)

How to rotate proxies using selenium

Selenium is mainly used when scraping dynamic content. You should set up selenium on your device before running any codes.

1. You need to have a list of working proxies that you will use, which you can easily buy online. You can follow the above-mentioned process to set up your proxies for rotating with selenium.
2. Create a code to rotate the proxies and update the proxy file each time you run the script.
3. Chrome driver executable file, which is present in selenium, will then print the public IP address that you are using.
4. In the case of a rotating proxy that requires authentication, you will need to add the Chrome extension to the Chrome driver to allow any authenticated proxy to Selenium.

Tips to rotate proxy in python/selenium

Use reliable proxy services: it is advisable to refrain from using free proxy services since they are mostly congested, leading to frustration and delays. You must use data-center and residential proxies since they are more effective.

Avoid predictable IP addresses: predictable IP addresses are easily detected by anti-scraping tools. Therefore your requests might be denied. Some of the predictable IP addresses are those that follow a particular sequence or those that use the same beginning or ending numbers.

Get a premium proxy service provider: if you are used to doing large web scraping, getting a premium proxy service provider will help you get high-quality services since, with most premium options, the proxies are adapted now and then. This ensures that different sequence of proxy is available for use whenever necessary.

Pair IP rotation with user-agent rotation: User agents are strings in HTTP requests that help websites identify browser details. With many requests from the same browser, the target website can detect the activity and ban the user. Therefore, it is also important that you rotate the user agent to protect yourself from banning.

Benefits of rotating proxy in Python/selenium

More alternatives: rotating proxy will help you continue scraping even after the initial IP address has been blocked since the target website will only see one request per proxy. Hence with many proxies, you can have more alternatives for doing your activity.

Security: with a rotating proxy, you will have more security advantages since the locations will be many. Hence it can be difficult for any hacker or target website to determine where exactly you are.

Webservers: web servers are in charge of detecting bots; therefore, with rotating IP addresses with many requests coming in from every corner, it will be difficult for the webserver to distinguish between bots and real requests.