Что делать, если в процессе выполнения скрапинга ваш IP заблокировали?

Web scraping is the collection of a large amount of data from one or several websites, which involves frequent requests to the server of that website for the desired information. Such traffic can be considered unwanted by site owners because:

• it distorts visitors statistics with bots;
• increases network usage;
• slows down the site’s response time to user requests up to complete downtime;
• can lead to the theft of commercial and other information.

What to do to avoid IP blocking

First of all, familiarize yourself with the rules of the site you are planning to scrape — if there is a prohibition on scraping, then you are likely to get IP ban with high probability. Specific reasons for blocking:

1. Too many requests per unit of time from one IP or IP pool;
2. Creating high load on the site you are accessing;
3. Falling into a bot trap;
4. The parser does not mimic the actions of a real user. When you are IP banned, you will either be unable to access the site entirely from that IP or only access certain pages. If you have been banned, here is what you can do.

What to do when your IP is banned

1. Contact support to unban you. Of course, if you were scraping and it is prohibited by the site or hosting rules, the chances of being unbanned are low. On the other hand, if you did nothing wrong but your IP is still blocked, there may be other reasons. For example, your Internet provider purchased an IP pool, some of which were already blacklisted, and one of these IPs was assigned to you. After checking this situation, there is a good chance your IP will be unbanned.
2. Reboot your router. This works if your dynamic IP rotation provides a new clean IP upon reboot — a common practice among modern providers. However, if you are assigned a “grey” technical IP in your internal network but use a separate static public IP for Internet access, which got banned, then rebooting the router will not help.
3. Use VPN networks. Depending on your VPN provider, the number of IP addresses you can use may range from a few to hundreds of thousands. The larger the available pool, the higher the typical cost. If you frequently perform large-scale tasks, over time you will exhaust available IPs, which will then be banned in turn.
4. Make each new request during scraping from a new IP. Configuring such automatic rotation, you may never get banned. The drawback is that you need a large pool of IP addresses and the ability to set up auto-rotation.
5. Use anti-detect browsers. They, like headless browsers, are equipped with special libraries for correct interaction with websites during scraping. This allows them to emulate real user behavior: page loading, cursor movement, form filling, waiting times, and generally leaving proper digital fingerprints.
6. Use proxy servers. Good proxy providers offer many great tools, such as IP auto-rotation, large pools of available IPs, precise targeting, and easy integration with professional software. There are mobile and residential proxies. Mobile proxies are better.

Conclusion

Getting on the blacklist (ban) by IP is not the end of the world. A more or less tech-savvy user can bypass the block in several ways. If you are a private user with a relatively small number of requests during scraping, all methods listed above will suit you. If you are a business user, focus on the optimal options for you, such as anti-detect browsers and proxy servers.