Using proxy servers for checks

What is a Proxy server?

A Proxy server is a server application that acts as an intermediary between the serving site and the requesting client. When the client sends a web request, the request goes to the proxy server first. The proxy server then makes the web request on client’s behalf, collects the response from the webserver, and forwards the web page data to the client so that it can see the page in its own browser.

Why use Proxy servers for Distill cloud checks?

Monitors are checked in Distill cloud using a pool of datacentre IPs. These are the shared pool of IPs that are used by all the subscribers of Distill. These IPs are mostly from the US region.

Following are a few cases when you may need to use Proxy servers for Distill cloud checks:

  1. When a website is blocking requests from datacentre IPs.
  2. When a website needs to be accessed from a particular region.

How to use the Proxy server to monitor webpage changes?

You can use Distill provided proxy servers.

To use Distill provided proxies, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the Options page of the monitor.

  2. Click on “options” under the device.

    options button for devices

  3. It will show a drop-down menu for the Proxy list. You can select the desired Proxy and save.

    drop-down menu with proxy list

Applicable plan and pricing

Proxy servers are available in the Professional plan and above. You can check the available proxies for your plan at https://monitor.distill.io/#/w/0/proxies/.

You will also be able to see the pricing details for the proxies on the proxy page. The cost of using a proxy is accounted for as checks in the account. If a proxy’s cost is N, 1 check using that proxy will be counted as N checks.

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