ProxyHorizon Glossary
The Proxy & Networking Glossary
Plain-language definitions of the proxy, VPN, scraping and networking terms you'll run into — explained simply, with examples and use cases.
29 terms and counting
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Plain-language definitions of the proxy, VPN, scraping and networking terms you'll run into — explained simply, with examples and use cases.
29 terms and counting
Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred over a connection in a given time — and the most common way proxy and VPN usage is measured and billed.
Browser fingerprinting identifies and tracks a device by combining dozens of browser and system attributes — like fonts, canvas rendering and user agent — into a near-unique signature.
A CAPTCHA is a challenge–response test used to tell humans and bots apart, such as identifying images or checking a box, to block automated access.
CGNAT is a technique carriers use to share one public IP among many customers — which is exactly why mobile proxy IPs are so trusted and hard to block.
A datacenter proxy is an IP address hosted on servers in a data center rather than assigned by an ISP — offering high speed and low cost, but easier for websites to detect.
DNS is the internet's phonebook — it translates human-readable domain names like example.com into the numeric IP addresses computers use to connect.
A headless browser is a real browser that runs without a visible interface, controlled by code — the workhorse for scraping JavaScript-heavy sites and automation.
An HTTP proxy is an intermediary server that forwards web (HTTP/HTTPS) requests on your behalf, able to read, cache and filter traffic at the application layer.
IP rotation is the practice of automatically cycling through multiple IP addresses so that successive requests originate from different IPs.
An ISP proxy (static residential) is a datacenter-hosted IP that is registered to an Internet Service Provider, combining datacenter speed with residential-level trust.
MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard that lets AI applications connect to external tools, data sources and services through one consistent client–server interface.
A mobile proxy routes traffic through real 3G/4G/5G cellular connections, using carrier-assigned IPs that are the hardest of all proxy types to detect or block.
Rate limiting restricts how many requests a client can make in a given time, and it is one of the most common defenses scrapers must work around.
A residential proxy routes your traffic through a real device with an IP assigned by an Internet Service Provider, so requests appear to come from a genuine home user rather than a server.
A reverse proxy sits in front of one or more servers and forwards client requests to them, handling load balancing, caching, TLS termination and security on the servers' behalf.
A rotating proxy automatically assigns a different IP address from a pool for each request or on a set interval, spreading traffic across many IPs to avoid blocks.
SOCKS5 is the latest version of the SOCKS proxy protocol. It routes any kind of network traffic — TCP and UDP — between a client and a server through a proxy, with optional authentication and no awareness of the underlying application.
SSL/TLS is the encryption protocol that secures data in transit on the web — the 'S' in HTTPS — protecting it from eavesdropping and tampering.
A sticky session keeps the same proxy IP for a set period, so multi-step workflows like logging in and checking out stay on one consistent address.
Web scraping is the automated extraction of data from websites — fetching pages programmatically and parsing their content into structured data.
A WebRTC leak exposes your real IP address through the browser's built-in real-time communication feature — even when you are using a VPN or proxy.
WireGuard is a modern, fast and lightweight VPN protocol known for its tiny codebase, strong cryptography and excellent performance.