Regulation methods for proxy services
Systems and methods to manage and regulate the requests of multiple proxy clients are disclosed. In one aspect, the system and methods disclosed herein aids in configuring proxy server(s) with a rate-limit functionality. Configuration of the rate-limit functionality may be realized by, but not limited to, installing configuration file(s) and/or software application(s) on the proxy server(s). The configuration provides information about the list of restricted and unrestricted domains and their respective request limit specification in a given time frame. Therefore, each time before a proxy server forwards the clients' requests to a target domain, the proxy server checks and ensures that the request count to the particular target domain is well within the limit specified in the request limit specification. Thus, the embodiments described herein aid in preventing the IP addresses of proxy service providers from being blocked or denied from the target websites.
1. A method to regulate a proxy server:
installing, by a proxy regulator, a configuration file on a proxy server;
storing, by the proxy regulator, configuration setting and metadata information about the proxy server in a proxy database;
receiving, by a gateway, a client request about the proxy server from a client device;
forwarding, by the gateway, the client request to the proxy regulator;
sending, by the proxy regulator, the proxy server information from the proxy database to the client device through the gateway;
upon receiving the client request, checking, by the proxy server, a target domain indicated in the client request to determine whether the target domain is in a list of restricted domains or unrestricted domains;
wherein the checking involves:
if the target domain is in the list of unrestricted domains, sending the client request to the target;
if the target domain is in the list of restricted domains, checking whether a request count for restricted domain has reached a limit in a time frame and if the request count for the target domain is below the limit, the proxy server forwards the client request to the target;
if the request count for the target domain is over the limit, the proxy server sends an error message to the client device;
wherein the configuration file enables the proxy server to manage incoming requests and outgoing request.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the limit indicates a number of requests that can be submitted or forwarded to each of the restricted domains in the time frame.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the configuration file includes one of or a combination of:
the list of restricted domains and related sub-domains to which a rate-limiting functionality is applicable;
the list of unrestricted domains and related sub-domains to which the rate-limiting functionality is not applicable;
request limit specifications of each restricted domain for an internet protocol (IP) address unique to the proxy server;
request limit specifications of each restricted domain for a set of multiple unique IP addresses unique to the proxy server.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the client request comprises at least one of or a combination of: proxy IP addresses, IP geo-location details, or proxy TCP/IP port address.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the client request can be coupled with authentication credentials, including: usernames/IDs, passwords, PINs, serial numbers, or one time passwords (OTPs).
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the configuration setting and metadata information about the proxy server stored in the proxy database comprises at least one of or a combination of: IP address of the proxy server, geo-location of the proxy server and Autonomous System Number (ASN) of the proxy server.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the proxy server information is fetched by the proxy regulator from the proxy database.