I would like loads of residential IP addresses, simply because they’re bloody useful and you can make loads of money from them. However, have you ever tried to get them? Well it’s difficult I can tell you, don’t think you can just speak to your ISP and they’ll let you have dozens. It’s not going to happen, well not unless you know someone or have enough money to bribe them. I’ve often managed to get one or two addresses extra but it’s not been easy, you’ll get asked loads of questions which can feel like the Spanish Inquisition.
And of course, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition when they’re just looking for a few IP addresses to grab a few more sneakers or boost their Instagram accounts. What’s worse it’s very difficult to give the sort of answers that your ISP want. Sure a sultry female voice might get you an extra address, but you’re sure not going to get a nice block of IPs to support your internet business.
The problem is basically that there’s a real shortage of IPv4 addresses, and those assigned to residential users are especially valuable. Their supply lies at the heart of the ISP business model, and their availability directly affects how many paying customers they can get. Basically if an ISP runs short of residential addresses then it can’t sign up any new customers, which is of course, kinda serious.
So Which Residential IP Provider Supplies all These Addresses?
There isn’t a single method for obtaining these addresses, many are in fact linked to individual ISP accounts and then relayed through residential proxies. This method ensures the IP addresses are clean and not blacklisted but it’s extremely expensive and takes a lot of effort and management. Even with some decent contacts the volume is going to be limited and you’d have to charge quite a lot of money to justify the effort and expense.
Don’t get me wrong, if money’s no object these IP addresses are the best and are very safe to use. They are literally ordinary residential user accounts in every sense. Yet we’ve probably all seen the thousands of IP addresses available with some proxy providers, indeed Luminati offer millions of these addresses from all over the world.
So where do these Millions of residential addresses come from ?
They’re obviously not registering them individually, so how is this sort of volume occur. The answer is by using another model which enables access to addresses all over the world with minimal effort. It involves piggybacking onto ordinary home users connection, by routing traffic from the proxy through somebody’s home IP is a great way to hide the origin.
What’s surprising is that so many people would let a stranger use their internet connection and bandwidth to stay anonymous! The most efficient method however is through free applications or software which people can use online in exchange. Often they’re free VPNs or online apps which will only state this deep in the terms and conditions (which nobody reads). They’re effectively P2P applications as you’re sharing your connection with lots of other people too. Often they’re sold as ‘community’ applications which make it sound like you’re all working together. What of course is happening is that you’re connection is being leased out to strangers for profit in exchange for you using some crappy slow VPN for nothing.
The other even less attractive method is to do the same thing but by installing malware on as many devices as possible. Then sitting quietly as your computer becomes part of a large Bot network supporting one of these residential proxy services. If you get enough users with either of these methods, then you can even split them into different regions so people can pay for an Irish IP address or a US one.
Source: https://residentialip.net/the-lowdown-on-those-residential-ips-for-sale/