Guides & resources
Practical guides on detecting VPNs, proxies, Tor exit nodes and bots from an IP plus IP reputation, fraud scoring and how to wire it all up with our API.
Ten VPN detection APIs compared on price, free tier and what each one detects, from IPScanner and MaxMind to IPQualityScore and IPinfo.
Seven reCAPTCHA alternatives compared on price, free tier, puzzle shown and whether each one can see VPN, proxy and Tor traffic.
PHP2Shell (CVE-2026-109618) lets attackers run code on unpatched PHP. Check your PHP version and update to 8.5.12, 8.4.27, 8.3.36 or 8.2.35.
What is agentic commerce? AI agents that browse, compare and buy for shoppers. The traffic it sends, and why your bot rules turn it away.
JA4 TLS fingerprinting describes how a client speaks TLS before any header. How it is built, why it replaced JA3, and where it stops being proof.
Verify AI agents for real: a GPTBot user agent proves nothing. Check published IP ranges, reverse DNS and ASN, then classify what fails.
Cloudflare blocks AI crawlers by default. What changed, what it costs you in AI citations, and how to allow and verify the crawlers you want.
Utah's age verification law expects proportionate measures and proof. Detect VPN and proxy masking at the gate and keep a defensible record.
The Online Safety Act expects highly effective age verification. Why VPN and proxy detection matters, and how to keep a record of each check.
Verify Googlebot with reverse DNS, since anyone can send its user agent, and tell verified bots, AI crawlers and malicious automation apart.
Australia's social media minimum age law expects reasonable age steps and proof. Where VPN and proxy detection fits, and how to keep the record.
The FBI links residential proxies to large-scale credential stuffing in 2026. How the attack works and how to detect it by IP address.
Identity-based attacks in 2026 start with a valid login, not a software flaw. Why identity is the new perimeter and how IP checks help defend it.
VPN vs proxy: both hide a user's real IP, but they work differently and carry different risk. How to tell them apart and why it matters.
What is a residential proxy? Traffic routed through real home IPs so bots look like ordinary users. How they work, the risks, how to detect them.
How does VPN detection work? Not one blocklist: provider ranges, hosting analysis, reputation and protocol hints combine into one verdict.
Bot detection by IP: the signals that expose automated traffic behind proxies, VPNs and hosting IPs, and how to score requests before damage.
What is IP reputation? A measure of how far to trust an IP, from what it is and how it behaved. What feeds it and how to use it against fraud.
How to block VPN users without frustrating real customers: detect VPN traffic, choose block or challenge, and avoid false positives.
What is an IP fraud score? VPN, proxy, Tor, hosting and abuse signals in one 0 to 100 number. How it is built and which thresholds to act on.
Detect VPNs in Node.js: call a VPN detection API from your backend, read the verdict and confidence score, and gate signups or logins on it.
What is a datacenter proxy? Proxies on cloud and hosting servers, the most common source of automated traffic. How they work and how to detect them.
What is an anonymous proxy? It hides a user's real IP. The anonymity levels (transparent, anonymous, elite), the fraud risk, and detection.
What is a Tor exit node? The last relay before traffic reaches your site, hiding its origin. How Tor works, the risks, and how to detect exits.
Residential vs datacenter proxies: how they differ in cost, speed and detectability, how each one hides traffic, and how to catch both.
How to detect proxy servers by IP: open proxies, SOCKS, residential and datacenter pools, and Tor, then turn each result into a decision.
How to detect Tor traffic by matching visitors against the live exit node list, and how to respond without blocking legitimate users.
IP geolocation maps an IP to a location. Learn how it works, how accurate it really is at country vs. city level, and why VPNs and proxies break it.
What is an ASN? The number for the network that owns an IP range. How to look one up, and why it is one of the strongest fraud detection signals.
Prevent fake account signups that fuel spam, fraud and trial abuse. Use VPN, proxy and reputation signals without hurting real users.
Stop multi-accounting and bonus abuse that drain promo budgets. How abusers fake unique users with proxies and VPNs, and how to catch them.
Prevent account takeover by spotting logins from the wrong place. How anonymizer and reputation signals power risk-based ATO defenses.
Detect and block scrapers that take content, prices and data behind proxies. Spot them by IP and behaviour, and block them without hurting SEO.
IP geolocation is easy to fake with a VPN or proxy. Learn how to verify a user's real location by combining geolocation with anonymiser detection.
Reduce payment fraud with IP checks: which signals predict chargebacks, and how to score checkouts without adding friction for good customers.
Detect VPNs in your signup flow before they turn into abuse. Add VPN checks to registration with sensible thresholds and a fair user experience.
The best signals for bot detection, ranked by reliability: the IP, network and behavioural signals that catch automated traffic.
Build an IP risk score from VPN, proxy, Tor, hosting and reputation signals. How to weight signals, set thresholds and tune them over time.
Detect proxies in Python: call a proxy detection API, read the proxy type and confidence score, and gate requests, with caching and Flask.
Geo-restrict content and stop VPN bypass: enforce regional access and close the VPN and proxy loopholes users exploit to get around it.
Free IP blocklists go stale fast and miss residential proxies. Their limits, and why real-time scored IP checks catch what they leave behind.
Detect cloud and hosting IPs from AWS, GCP, Azure and other providers by ASN, then use the signal in fraud rules, where most bots live.
How to choose a VPN detection API: accuracy, residential proxy coverage, data freshness, scoring, speed and pricing, checked before you commit.
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