Automation can be an incredible thing. It saves time, increases output, and it can perform tasks in a volume impossible manually. But like most things, with poor set up, you’re getting poor results. One of the most overlooked variables when automating? Proxies. Or more specifically – datacenter proxies .
They’re fast, they’re cheap, they’re easily accessible. Looks fantastic, right? But they’re also incredibly easy to misuse. Let’s go over the most common mistakes people make with datacenter proxies regarding automation – and what you can do to avoid it.
1. Using Shared Datacenter Proxies for High-Risk Tasks
It can feel safe at first. You get a little curious, build a few scripts on a shared proxy, and everything goes fine. Then-bam. Blocks. Or worse, account bans.
You’ll see that quickly with shared datacenter proxies. They get flagged quickly because they are shared with a lot of other users hitting the same IPs. And this is particularly dangerous when doing automated logins, scraping protected content, or working with platforms that detect patterns quickly-sneaker drops or social media bots, for example.
Yeah, private proxies are more expensive. But, if you’re doing anything sophisticated, it’s worth it. Otherwise, you’re going to waste hours debugging an issue that isn’t your code – it’s your proxy.
2. Ignoring Proxy Rotation and Session Management in Automated Requests
This is huge. Many times, automation means letting hundreds (or thousands) of requests go out. If all those requests are coming from the same IP? You’ve got a big old red flag on your hands.
Rotating proxies can disperse those requests across different IPs to a certain degree. However, rotation is only one part of the puzzle — you also have to weigh the importance of session persistence. In many cases, a bot will rely on maintaining the same IP through multiple steps in a flow. If your proxy changes magic IP addresses before it’s finished, it will break the session and destroy your work.
The best case is wisely mixing both — rotating IPs where you can, but allowing for sticky sessions where necessary. This will matter more if you are using tools like Playwright or Puppeteer as those tools utilize established environments, and unintentional IP changing at the wrong moment will cause errors that are hard to reconcile.
3. Choosing Speed Over Location Diversity
It’s easy to focus on speed. After all, fast proxies mean faster automation, right?
Yes — but that’s not the whole picture.
Many automation tasks require IPs from specific regions. For example, scraping local eCommerce sites, running geo-targeted ads, or testing country-specific content. Using all proxies from one location might be faster, but the results won’t match your goals.
Also, platforms sometimes block or throttle traffic from specific regions. Having a diverse proxy pool helps avoid those walls. So while speed is important, location diversity can be the difference between working scripts and wasted effort.
4. Underestimating the Importance of Proxy Subnet Variety
One thing most people do not realize right away is that websites commonly will block whole subnets of IP addresses (this is not uncommon).
If your proxy provider provides 1000 IPs, and they could be from the same subnet (or only a few subnets), you will not have to wait long before all of the IP addresses will be useless. One block can eliminate everything you had planned to do.
Look for proxy providers with a wide subnets for their solutions. Questions related to IP distribution. If it is all clustered together, then look for another provider. This is much more relevant than people realize – especially if your type of scraping is at a larger scale, or doing automation on structured data.
5. Overloading Threads Without Respecting Proxy Bandwidth Limits
Running more threads doesn’t always mean better performance. If your proxies can’t handle the load, things break — or slow to a crawl.
Each proxy has a bandwidth cap. Some limit the number of concurrent connections. Others throttle after a certain threshold. Pushing your proxies too hard leads to timeouts, failed requests, and inconsistent results.
It’s better to run stable scripts at a slightly lower speed than to have aggressive scripts that crash unpredictably. You’ll get more done over time, even if the initial output looks slower.
6. Failing to Monitor Proxy Health and Real-Time Performance
You wouldn’t believe how many people forget this. They configure their proxies, run the automating script, and figure they’re good until they’re not. Some proxies die without notice. Others slow down over time. You may not think to check for a dropped proxy, or notice that the proxies are being under-utilized, which could lead to you wasting time running a scraping script that took 20 minutes to run last week, and now takes an hour to run…and you have no idea why.
Use your scripts to log the response times and failed counts. Remove slow IPs. Use an API from whatever proxy provider you use….most have them for you to check the health of your IPs. Trust me. It’s not a fun or exciting task, but it will save you a lot of headaches in the future.
Final Thoughts: Smarter Proxy Usage = Better Automation
Most people think of proxies as just IPs. A background detail. But when you’re automating anything at scale, proxies are the foundation.
Datacenter proxies are powerful, yes. But only if used right. Avoid shared pools for sensitive tasks. Rotate wisely. Don’t overload them. Pay attention to where they’re coming from — and how many others are using similar IP ranges.
It doesn’t need to be complicated. Just… don’t ignore it.
People Also Ask (Extra Insight)
Are datacenter proxies good for scraping?
Yes — if the target isn’t heavily protected. For basic scraping, they’re fast and affordable. For high-security sites, residential proxies may work better.
How many datacenter proxies do I need for automation?
Depends on your thread count and the site’s tolerance. A rough baseline is 1 proxy per 3–5 threads, with rotation. But test and adjust based on your setup.
Why do datacenter proxies get blocked so often?
They’re fast but easy to detect. Many IPs come from known hosting providers. Without rotation or session control, they trip rate-limiters quickly.
Can you use datacenter proxies for bots?
Yes. Many sneaker bots, ticket bots, and scraping tools rely on them. But always check the platform’s rules. Some detect and block datacenter IPs faster than others.
