How to Set Up Proxies with Octoparse (Configuration Tutorial)

Web scraping can provide invaluable data, but many websites employ tough anti-scraping mechanisms that can detect and block automated scrapers. Using proxies is essential for bypassing these protections and accessing target sites without issues.

In this comprehensive guide, we will cover everything you need to know about setting up and integrating proxies within Octoparse on both Windows and Mac. You'll learn how proxies work, how to configure them, and how to leverage leading providers like BrightData, Soax, Smartproxy, and Proxy-Seller for successful web scraping.

Why Proxies Are Critical for Web Scraping

Websites have a number of ways to prevent scrapers from accessing their data:

• IP bans – Sites detect repeat visits from the same IP address and block it.
• CAPTCHAs – Requiring scraping bots to pass human verification tests.
• User agent inspection – Blocking common scraper user agent strings.
• Behavior analysis – Identifying patterns like high frequencies of requests.

Without proxies, your web scraper has a single, fixed identify that makes it easy to detect and block. Proxies work by routing your scraper traffic through intermediate proxy servers that mask your identity and make each request appear to come from a new source.

Here are some of the key benefits proxies provide for web scrapers:

• Rotate IPs – Each request uses a different proxy IP to avoid bans.
• Hide identity – Scraper IP, geolocation, and machine identity are concealed.
• Bypass geographic blocks – Target any region-restricted sites.
• Increase performance – Spread loads across multiple proxies simultaneously.
• Reduce overhead – No need to manually handle CAPTCHAs, retries, etc.

Trying to scrape at scale without proxies will almost certainly lead to blocking and limited, low-quality data. Integrating rotating, reliable proxies is crucial for web scraping success.

Residential vs Datacenter Proxies

There are two main types of proxies suitable for web scraping – residential and datacenter.

Residential proxies use real IPs from devices like computers and mobile phones located in homes and businesses. They offer the most natural browsing behavior since they come from real humans/devices. Key features:

• Excellent for mimicking organic users and avoiding detection.
• Usually limited to 1-2 concurrent connections per IP.
• Shared IPs may have inconsistent speeds.
• Geotarget by city/country with location-specific IPs.

Datacenter proxies originate from servers housed in datacenters, rather than consumer devices. They provide better performance for parallel scraping. Features include:

• Able to handle 10+ concurrent connections per IP.
• Consistently fast speeds of 1Gbps or higher.
• Not as highly anonymous since not real consumer IPs.
• Choose datacenter location to reduce latency.

In general, residential proxies are preferred when mimicking real users and maximizing anonymity. Datacenter proxies are ideal for heavy workloads and multithreaded scraping due to their fast speeds and connection volumes. Most proxy providers offer both options.

Featured Proxy Providers

There are hundreds of proxy services available, but quality and reliability can vary widely. Here we feature four top-tier proxy providers known for high performance, large IP pools, and excellent uptime.

BrightData

BrightData is one of the leading proxy services for web scraping, providing over 72 million residential IPs and datacenter subnets.

Residential – 72M+ IPs located in global countries and cities like Los Angeles, London, etc. Shared and private plans are available.

Datacenter – Dedicated and shared subnets in regions like US East, Germany, etc. Up to 40Gbps+ speeds.

BrightData proxies are optimized specifically for web scraping and data extraction. All plans have high connection limits and reliable uptime above 99%. BrightData also offers special integrations to simplify proxy setup in popular scraping tools.

Pricing starts at $500/month for residential plans and $500/month for datacenter subnets.

Soax

Soax provides premium residential and mobile proxies with over 8.5 million IPs.

Residential – 5M+ IPs in 195 locations. Unlimited concurrent sessions on the plan.

Soax features region-targeting, white-label IPs, 99.9% uptime, and quality proxies that can handle heavy scraping workloads. Custom plans are available.

Pricing is reasonable, starting at $99/month for 5M residential IPs.

Smartproxy

Smartproxy focuses exclusively on blazing fast datacenter proxies located around the world.

Key features include:

• 40Gbps+ speeds with unlimited bandwidth.
• 100k+ shared IPs and option for dedicated subnets.
• Automatic IP rotation and stickiness/sessions.
• 99.99% uptime.

Smartproxy datacenter plan excels at delivering lightning performance for demanding scraping needs. Pricing starts at $30/month for 50GB traffic plans.

Proxy-Seller

Proxy-Seller provides affordable, entry-level residential proxies starting at just $30/month.

They currently offer 15M+ IPs located in over 220 countries. While not as advanced as other providers, their budget proxies work reliably for basic scraping tasks. Plans include:

• 15M IPs over 220 countries).
• HTTP(s) and SOCKS5 support.
• Support for up to 40,000 ports.
• Flexible rotation options.

If you have smaller scrapers and don't need advanced customization, Proxy-Seller is a cost-effective option.

Setting Up Proxies in Octoparse on Windows

Octoparse makes it straightforward to add proxies on Windows PCs. Follow these steps:

1. Download and install the Windows version of Octoparse if you haven't already.
2. Open Octoparse and start a new Custom scraping task.
3. In your task, go to the Settings > Anti-blocking menu.
4. Check the box for “Access websites via proxies”. This enables proxy support.
5. Now enable the “Use my own proxies” setting.
6. Click the Configure button to open the proxy setup:
7. In the IP/Host field, enter your proxy provider's hostname, such as pr.brightdata.com for BrightData residential proxies.
8. Enter the proxy port in the Port field, like 7777.
9. If your provider needs authentication, enter your username and password.
10. Set the Switch Interval which determines how often to cycle proxy IPs.
11. Click Add to insert the proxy into Octoparse.
12. Repeat steps 7-11 to add multiple proxies and expand your IP pool.
13. Once proxies are configured, you can start scraping through them right away.

Here are some example proxy formats for popular providers:

BrightData

• Residential – pr.brightdata.com:7777:username:password
• Datacenter – 123.123.123.123:60000:username:password

Soax

• Residential – rp.soax.com:8000:username:password

Smartproxy

• Datacenter – 333.333.333.333:30000:username:password

Proxy-Seller

• Residential – pl.proxyseller.com:8000:username:password

Tip: Try starting with 50-100 proxy IPs and increase from there as needed. Too many proxies can slow down scraping if they aren't utilized efficiently.

Setting Up Proxies in Octoparse on Mac

The process for integrating proxies in Octoparse on Mac OS is almost identical:

1. Download and install the Mac version of Octoparse if you don't already have it.
2. Create a new custom scraping task.
3. Go to Settings > Anti-blocking and check “Access websites via proxies”.
4. Enable “Use my own proxies” and click Configure.
5. Follow steps 7-13 of the Windows instructions above to add your proxies in the proper format along with any authentication credentials required.
6. The Mac interface looks a bit different but has the same options. Proxy setup works the same way.

The proxy formats are identical on Mac as well – you can use the Windows examples above.

Advanced Proxy Configuration

Beyond just entering proxies, here are some additional configuration tips:

HTTP vs SOCKS – Most providers support both protocols. HTTP proxies are easier to use while SOCKS add an extra layer of anonymity.

Country targeting – Add location info to the hostname, like us-pr.brightdata.com for US IPs from BrightData.

Custom switch intervals – Set this to match proxy limits to avoid bans.

Concurrent connections – Experiment with multi-threaded scraping based on proxy type.

Private accounts – Create unique usernames to avoid mixing scrapers on shared pools.

Sticky sessions – Use the same proxy IP for entire site to avoid appearing suspicious.

Whitewashing – Further mask new proxies by warming them up on clean sites first.

Retries – Automatically retry failed requests with fresh proxies.

Error handling – Catch proxy errors cleanly so scraping keeps running.

Integrating Proxies in Octoparse

With the basics covered, let's see how to integrate some top proxy services into Octoparse.

BrightData Setup

BrightData offers the largest pools of high-quality residential and datacenter proxies. They provide consistent speeds, low failure rates, and helpful integration support.

To add BrightData proxies in Octoparse:

Residential

• Use pr.brightdata.com as the hostname and ports like 7777
• For country-specific residential IPs, use a hostname like ca-pr.brightdata.com
• Set concurrent connections to 1-2 to mimic organic browsing.

Datacenter

• Use your dedicated IP for the hostname like 123.123.123.123
• Enter the assigned datacenter port like 60000
• Increase concurrent connections up to 10-25X higher since these are scalable proxies on fast server hardware.

Brightness offers convenient integrations for simplified Octoparse setup as well.

Soax Setup

Soax provides high-quality residential and datacenter proxies to meet varying scraping needs:

Residential

• Use rp.soax.com for the hostname and standard ports like 8000.
• Target specific locations by adding a country code like sg-rp.soax.com for Singapore IPs.
• Limit concurrent connections to 2-3 per IP.

Soax proxies deliver reliable performance thanks to real-time monitoring and optimization.

Smartproxy Setup

Smartproxy offers simple proxy authentication along with blazing fast datacenter proxies:

• Enter your assigned datacenter IP address like 333.333.333.333
• Add the proxy port such as 30000.
• Due to their unlimited bandwidth, you can maximize concurrency up to 50-75X higher to scale scraping.

Smartproxy uses proxy managers that automatically rotate IPs and maximize scraping concurrency.

Proxy-Seller Setup

Proxy-Seller provides affordable residential proxies mostly across over 220 countries:

• Use pl.proxyseller.com for the hostname.
• Add a standard port like 8000.
• Limit to 1-2 concurrent connections.

While basic, their proxies work reliably for personal and smaller-scale scraping.

Troubleshooting Proxy Issues

When setting up multiple proxies, you may run into certain errors or issues:

• Connection errors – Try increasing timeout and retry limits in proxy settings.
• CAPTCHAs – Resolve manually or switch to new residential proxies.
• HTTP errors (400, 403, etc) – Rotate proxies faster or use different provider IPs.
• Blocked IPs – Immediately replace blocked proxies with new ones. Monitor blocks closely.
• Slow speeds – Reduce threading or switch to faster datacenter proxies.
• Mixed performance – Isolate and replace underperforming proxy IPs.
• Unstable results – Adjust your scraping approach rather than blame proxies first.

Careful proxy configuration, monitoring, and optimization will resolve most issues that arise.

Getting the Most Out of Your Proxies

To leverage proxies effectively for web scraping with Octoparse:

• Start small – Add proxies incrementally to avoid issues at scale.
• Compare providers – Test different vendors to see which work best for your sites.
• Analyze performance – Monitor proxy speed, failures, blocks, etc. and optimize.
• Adjust concurrency – Tune threads to match proxy capabilities.
• Retry failures – Programmatically retry through new proxies.
• Spread loads – Prevent scraping bottlenecks by distributing proxy usage.
• Automate cycling – Ensure proxies rotate adequately to avoid overuse.
• Whitelabel residential IPs – Further hide scraper identity from targets.
• Leverage locations – Target proxies geo-located close to your sites.

With the right provider, configuration, and optimization, proxies will take your Octoparse scraping to the next level!

Scraping Success with Proxies

Using proxies is a must for reliable web scraping at scale with Octoparse and other similar tools. Configuring them properly enables you to:

• Bypass blocking – Rotate IPs to avoid simple detection methods.
• Scrape more data – Access larger targets and at higher rates.
• Maintain uptime – Keep scrapers running smoothly despite anti-scraping attempts.
• Unblock geo-restrictions – Target sites restricted to certain regions.
• Speed up scraping – Leverage datacenter proxies for heavy parallel workloads.

BrightData, Soax, Smartproxy, and Proxy-Seller provide high-quality proxies suitable for integration in Octoparse. Configure them properly on Windows or Mac following this guide for scraping success!