What Is a Residential Proxy?

A residential proxy routes a request through an IP address assigned by an internet service provider to a real residential connection, rather than through a data center. To the site receiving the request, traffic through a residential proxy looks identical to an ordinary home internet connection, because the IP address genuinely belongs to that class of network.

This matters because most sites treat data-center IP ranges with far more suspicion than residential ones — a data-center IP is easy to identify and block outright, while a residential IP is not, since blocking it risks blocking real customers on that same provider.

Residential proxy networks are typically built from devices or connections that have explicitly opted in to route traffic in exchange for something in return, rather than being silently repurposed. MaskFlare Cloak sources its exit network under an explicit opt-in consent policy — see the Cloak page and the full No-Log Policy for specifics.