The essential points from this guide -- each one is explained in detail below.
Rotating mode assigns a new IP for every request -- best for independent page fetches.
Sticky mode maintains the same IP for a defined session duration (1-30 minutes typically).
Session-dependent tasks (login, checkout, pagination with cookies) require sticky mode.
Rotating mode provides better anti-detection because no IP accumulates request volume.
Hybrid approaches route scraping through rotating and account tasks through sticky proxies.
With a backconnect proxy gateway, you connect to a single endpoint (gw.knoxproxy.com:7000) and the gateway assigns an exit IP from its pool. In rotating mode, every new TCP connection gets a different exit IP. In sticky mode, you specify a session identifier and all connections with that identifier route through the same exit IP for a fixed duration.
With KnoxProxy, you control the mode through the username:
user:pass@gw.knoxproxy.com:7000 # rotating (default)
user-session-abc123:pass@gw.knoxproxy.com:7000 # sticky sessionThe session ID (abc123) can be any string you choose. All requests using the same session ID within the session lifetime (typically 10-30 minutes depending on the provider) will exit through the same IP.
Rotating proxies are the default choice for data collection workloads where each request is independent. Scraping product pages, fetching search results, downloading images, and collecting pricing data are all independent-request tasks. Each request stands alone and does not depend on state from previous requests.
The anti-detection advantage of rotation is significant. If you send 10,000 requests to one target, rotating mode spreads those requests across 10,000 different IPs. No single IP sends more than one request, making rate limiting nearly impossible. With KnoxProxy's 90.4M+ IP pool, you have effectively unlimited rotation depth.
Rotation also provides automatic recovery from bad IPs. If one IP is blocked by the target, the next request automatically gets a clean IP. You never need to manage an IP blocklist or manually remove flagged IPs.
Sticky sessions are required when the target associates your IP with session state. The most common scenarios are:
Login flows: you authenticate on request 1 and the target sets a session cookie tied to your IP. If request 2 comes from a different IP, the session is invalidated.
Multi-step checkouts: adding to cart, entering shipping info, and submitting payment are sequential requests that the target expects from the same IP.
Pagination with anti-bot protection: some sites track which pages you have visited and flag IP changes mid-crawl as suspicious.
Account management: posting content, sending messages, or managing settings on social platforms requires IP consistency.
For these workflows, create a unique session ID per task (per account, per checkout flow) and reuse it for all related requests. Create a new session ID for each independent task.
Most real-world projects combine both modes. A price monitoring system might use rotating proxies for the initial product discovery crawl (independent requests) and sticky sessions for logging into competitor portals to see member-only pricing.
Implement this by maintaining two proxy configurations:
ROTATING_PROXY = 'http://user:pass@gw.knoxproxy.com:7000'
def sticky_proxy(session_id):
return f'http://user-session-{session_id}:pass@gw.knoxproxy.com:7000'
# Scraping: rotating
for url in product_urls:
requests.get(url, proxies={'https': ROTATING_PROXY})
# Account login: sticky
session = requests.Session()
session.proxies = {'https': sticky_proxy('account-42')}
session.post('https://target.com/login', data=credentials)
session.get('https://target.com/member-pricing')This gives you the best of both modes: maximum stealth for scraping and session continuity for account operations.
Ready to put this into practice? Browse Rotating Proxies
KnoxProxy Research Team · Technical Content
Network engineers and proxy infrastructure specialists with 10+ years in anti-bot systems, web scraping, and IP routing.
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