Proxy Gateway
A single entry-point server that fronts a proxy provider's IP pool, assigning an IP to each connection from the pool behind it.
A proxy gateway is the single endpoint you connect to that fronts a provider's entire IP pool. Instead of connecting to individual proxy IPs, you send all your traffic to one host:port - the gateway - and it assigns an IP from the pool behind it for each request or session. This is how modern rotating proxies are delivered.
The gateway model is what makes rotation effortless. You configure one endpoint in your scraper and never manage a list of IPs; the gateway handles selection, rotation, geo-targeting, and session stickiness based on the port and username parameters you send. Behind that one address may sit millions of residential IPs.
Parameters passed to the gateway control its behavior. Typically the username encodes options: which country or city to exit from, whether to keep a sticky session and for how long, and sometimes which pool to draw from. The gateway reads these and routes accordingly, so a single connection string can express complex targeting.
This architecture also centralizes authentication and reliability. You authenticate once to the gateway (by credentials or IP whitelist), and the provider manages the health of the pool behind it - removing dead IPs, balancing load, and enforcing your plan's limits. For the user, the whole pool looks like one smart endpoint.
One address in front of many
A gateway is a single entry point that fronts a pool of exits. You always connect to the same hostname and port, and the gateway decides which device carries your traffic based on the parameters you supply.
This is the standard architecture for residential networks, because the exits are unreliable by nature. A home device drops off constantly, and a gateway simply routes your next connection elsewhere rather than handing you a broken address.
The trade is that you describe an exit rather than choosing one. You can ask for a country, a city and a duration; you cannot ask for a specific address, and you will not be told which address you got unless you check.
Our gateway and its parameters
Everything you control lives in the login string. The host and port never change:
Describing what you want
proxy.sotaproxy.com:10000 the gateway, constant
login any exit
login_c_JP Japan
login_c_JP_city_Tokyo Tokyo
login_c_JP_s_3_ttl_1h hold one Tokyo exit an hour- Because the gateway address never changes, firewall rules and profile settings survive exit rotation.
- Whitelisting the gateway hostname at a destination achieves nothing: traffic arrives from the exit, not from us.
- A 502 means the gateway found no exit matching your description, which is a stock condition rather than a fault.
- Ask for your current exit when you need to know it, by requesting an IP echo service through the same session.
Gateway misconceptions
One gateway line is not one proxy
Ten identical lines in a tool can land on the same exit unless the session ids differ.
You cannot pin a specific exit address
Sticky holds whatever was chosen. For a known address, buy a static product.
The gateway is not what the site sees
It sees the exit device.
Concurrency is not limited by pool visibility
You can run far more parallel connections than the number of exits you ever observe.
Related terms
See this in practice
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