Session Control

Learn how to manage Mobile Proxy sessions to keep the same IP address across multiple requests and control session length and IP rotation.

Set up a default session

The sessid parameter lets you route several requests through the same IP address. Add sessid after your username with a randomly generated alphanumeric string, for example sessid-abcd1234.

For example, an initial request using sessid-abcd1234 might be assigned the IP 1.1.1.1. As long as you keep sending requests with the same session ID and that IP stays online, your queries continue to route through 1.1.1.1. If you pause for 60 seconds or the IP goes offline, the system assigns a new one, so your next request with sessid-abcd1234 is routed through a different IP, such as 1.1.1.2.

By default, a session lasts 10 minutes, or ends after 60 seconds without any requests – whichever comes first. Once that happens, a new IP address is assigned automatically. To change the session length, please refer to Extend session duration.

Credentials list example:

Example represents a list of credentials that establish different sessions.

customer-USERNAME-cc-DE-sessid-qwert:PASSWORD
customer-USERNAME-cc-US-sessid-asdfg:PASSWORD
customer-USERNAME-cc-GB-sessid-zxcvb:PASSWORD

Code example

In this example we are using German IP with sessid-abcd1234 in the username with the first request. All following requests will keep the same German IP with further queries:

cURL

curl -x pr.oxylabs.io:7777 -U "customer-USERNAME-cc-DE-sessid-abcd1234:PASSWORD" https://ip.oxylabs.io/location

PHP

<?php
$username = 'USERNAME';
$password = 'PASSWORD';
$country = 'DE';
$session = mt_rand();
$proxy = 'pr.oxylabs.io:7777';
$query = curl_init('https://ip.oxylabs.io/location');
curl_setopt($query, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($query, CURLOPT_PROXY, "http://$proxy");
curl_setopt($query, CURLOPT_PROXYUSERPWD, "customer-$username-cc-$country-sessid-$session:$password");
$output = curl_exec($query);
curl_close($query);
if ($output)
    echo $output;
?>

Python

import urllib.request
import random
username = 'USERNAME'
password = 'PASSWORD'
country = 'DE'
session = random.random()
entry = ('http://customer-%s-cc-%s-sessid-%s:[e-mail]:7777' %
    (username, country, session, password))
query = urllib.request.ProxyHandler({
    'http': entry,
    'https': entry,
})
execute = urllib.request.build_opener(query)
print(execute.open('https://ip.oxylabs.io/location').read())

Java

package example;

import java.io.*;
import java.util.Random;
import org.apache.http.HttpHost;
import org.apache.http.auth.*;
import org.apache.http.client.CredentialsProvider;
import org.apache.http.client.fluent.Request;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.*;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.*;
import org.apache.http.impl.conn.BasicHttpClientConnectionManager;
import org.apache.http.util.EntityUtils;

class Client {
    public static final String username = "USERNAME";
    public static final String password = "PASSWORD";
    public String session_id = Integer.toString(new Random().nextInt(Integer.MAX_VALUE));
    public CloseableHttpClient client;

    public Client(String country) {
        String login = "customer-"+username+(country!=null ? "-cc-"+country : "")
            +"-sessid-" + session_id;
        HttpHost entry_node = new HttpHost("pr.oxylabs.io:7777");
        CredentialsProvider credentials_provider = new BasicCredentialsProvider();
        credentials_provider.setCredentials(new AuthScope(entry_node),
            new UsernamePasswordCredentials(login, password));
        client = HttpClients.custom()
            .setConnectionManager(new BasicHttpClientConnectionManager())
            .setProxy(entry_node)
            .setDefaultCredentialsProvider(credentials_provider)
            .build();
    }

    public String request(String url) throws IOException {
        HttpGet request = new HttpGet(url);
        CloseableHttpResponse response = client.execute(request);
        try {
            return EntityUtils.toString(response.getEntity());
        } finally { response.close(); }
    }

    public void close() throws IOException { client.close(); }
}

public class Example {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        Client client = new Client("de");
        try {
            System.out.println(client.request("https://ip.oxylabs.io/location"));
        } finally { client.close(); }
    }
}

C#

using System;
using System.Net;

class Client : WebClient
{
    public static string username = "USERNAME";
    public static string password = "PASSWORD";
    public string session_id = new Random().Next().ToString();

    public Client(string country_iso = null)
    {
        this.Proxy = new WebProxy("pr.oxylabs.io:7777");
        var login = "customer-"+username+(country_iso != null ? "-cc-"+country_iso : "")
            +"-sessid-"+session_id;
        this.Proxy.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(login, password);
    }

    protected override WebRequest GetWebRequest(Uri address)
    {
        var request = base.GetWebRequest(address) as HttpWebRequest;
        request.ConnectionGroupName = session_id;
        return request;
    }
}

class Example
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var client = new Client("de");
        Console.WriteLine(client.DownloadString("https://ip.oxylabs.io/location"));
    }
}

Ruby

require 'uri'
require 'net/http'
require 'net/https'

entry_node = 'pr.oxylabs.io'
entry_port = '7777'
username = 'USERNAME'
password = 'PASSWORD'
session_id = Random.rand(1000000)

uri = URI.parse("https://ip.oxylabs.io/location")
headers = {
    'Accept-Encoding' => 'gzip'
}

proxy = Net::HTTP::Proxy(entry_node, entry_port, "#{username}-cc-DE-sessid-#{session_id}", password)
http = proxy.new(uri.host,uri.port)

if uri.scheme == 'https'
    http.use_ssl = true
    http.verify_mode = OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_NONE
end

req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri.path, headers)

result = http.start do |con|
    con.request(req)
end

puts result.body

Extend session duration

The sesstime parameter is used together with sessid to keep a session running longer than the default 10 minutes or up to 60 seconds of inactivity (no requests).

Note: You can use the sesstime parameter to maintain the same IP for up to 1440 minutes (24 hours). However, because the mobile proxy pool is dynamic, your connection may end sooner. If that happens, start a session with a new session parameter.

Disclaimer: The session time parameter does not guarantee that all of your requests finish before the session ends. The session expires once the time limit is reached, even if some requests are still in progress.

Credentials list example:

Example represents a list of credentials that establish different sessions with different sessions time (minutes).

customer-USERNAME-cc-DE-sessid-qwert-sesstime-10:PASSWORD
customer-USERNAME-cc-US-sessid-asdfg-sesstime-20:PASSWORD
customer-USERNAME-cc-GB-sessid-zxcvb-sesstime-30:PASSWORD

Code example

We chose the same German IP as in the previous example, this time we are adding sessidstring and sesstime parameter for 7 minutes:

cURL

curl -x pr.oxylabs.io:7777 -U "customer-USERNAME-cc-DE-sessid-abcd1234-sesstime-7:PASSWORD" https://ip.oxylabs.io/location

PHP

<?php
$username = 'USERNAME';
$password = 'PASSWORD';
$country = 'DE';
$session = mt_rand();
$sesstime = 7;
$proxy = 'pr.oxylabs.io:7777';
$query = curl_init('https://ip.oxylabs.io/location');
curl_setopt($query, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($query, CURLOPT_PROXY, "http://$proxy");
curl_setopt($query, CURLOPT_PROXYUSERPWD, "customer-$username-cc-$country-sessid-$session-sesstime-$sesstime:$password");
$output = curl_exec($query);
curl_close($query);
if ($output)
    echo $output;
?>

Python

import urllib.request
import random
username = 'USERNAME'
password = 'PASSWORD'
country = 'DE'
session = random.random()
sesstime = 7
entry = ('http://customer-%s-cc-%s-sessid-%s-sesstime-%d:[e-mail]:7777' %
    (username, country, city, session, sesstime, password))
query = urllib.request.ProxyHandler({
    'http': entry,
    'https': entry,
})
execute = urllib.request.build_opener(query)
print(execute.open('https://ip.oxylabs.io/location').read())

Java

package example;

import java.io.*;
import java.util.Random;
import org.apache.http.HttpHost;
import org.apache.http.auth.*;
import org.apache.http.client.CredentialsProvider;
import org.apache.http.client.fluent.Request;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.*;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.*;
import org.apache.http.impl.conn.BasicHttpClientConnectionManager;
import org.apache.http.util.EntityUtils;

class Client {
    public static final String username = "USERNAME";
    public static final String password = "PASSWORD";
    public String session_id = Integer.toString(new Random().nextInt(Integer.MAX_VALUE));
    public String sesstime = "7";
    public CloseableHttpClient client;

    public Client(String country) {
        String login = "customer-"+username+(country_iso != null ? "-cc-"+country_iso : "")+"-sessid-"+session_id+"-sesstime-" +sesstime;
        HttpHost entry_node = new HttpHost("pr.oxylabs.io:7777");
        CredentialsProvider credentials_provider = new BasicCredentialsProvider();
        credentials_provider.setCredentials(new AuthScope(entry_node),
            new UsernamePasswordCredentials(login, password));
        client = HttpClients.custom()
            .setConnectionManager(new BasicHttpClientConnectionManager())
            .setProxy(entry_node)
            .setDefaultCredentialsProvider(credentials_provider)
            .build();
    }

    public String request(String url) throws IOException {
        HttpGet request = new HttpGet(url);
        CloseableHttpResponse response = client.execute(request);
        try {
            return EntityUtils.toString(response.getEntity());
        } finally { response.close(); }
    }

    public void close() throws IOException { client.close(); }
}

public class Example {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        Client client = new Client("de");
        try {
            System.out.println(client.request("https://ip.oxylabs.io/location"));
        } finally { client.close(); }
    }
}

C#

using System;
using System.Net;

class Client : WebClient
{
    public static string username = "USERNAME";
    public static string password = "PASSWORD";
    public string session_id = new Random().Next().ToString();

    public Client(string country_iso = null)
    {
        this.Proxy = new WebProxy("pr.oxylabs.io:7777");
        var login = "customer-"+username+(country_iso != null ? "-cc-"+country_iso : "")
            +"-sessid-"+session_id;
        this.Proxy.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(login, password);
    }

    protected override WebRequest GetWebRequest(Uri address)
    {
        var request = base.GetWebRequest(address) as HttpWebRequest;
        request.ConnectionGroupName = session_id;
        return request;
    }
}

class Example
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var client = new Client("de");
        Console.WriteLine(client.DownloadString("https://ip.oxylabs.io/location"));
    }
}

Ruby

require 'uri'
require 'net/http'
require 'net/https'

entry_node = 'pr.oxylabs.io'
entry_port = '7777'
username = 'USERNAME'
password = 'PASSWORD'
session_id = Random.rand(1000000)
sesstime = 7

uri = URI.parse("https://ip.oxylabs.io/location")
headers = {
    'Accept-Encoding' => 'gzip'
}

proxy = Net::HTTP::Proxy(entry_node, entry_port, "#{username}-cc-DE-sessid-#{session_id}-sesstime-#{sesstime}", password)
http = proxy.new(uri.host,uri.port)

if uri.scheme == 'https'
    http.use_ssl = true
    http.verify_mode = OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_NONE
end

req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri.path, headers)

result = http.start do |con|
    con.request(req)
end

puts result.body

To set up sticky proxy entry nodes, learn more here.

Control session IP rotation

The sessid_oneip parameter is an alternative to sessid for cases where you must keep the exact same IP for the entire session.

With a regular sessid, if the assigned exit node goes offline before the session time expires, the system automatically assigns a new IP and your session continues. With sessid_oneip, the session is bound to a single exit node: once that IP is no longer available, instead of rotating to a new one, the request fails with an HTTP 502 response. At that point, start a new session with a fresh sessid_oneip value. sessid_oneip can be combined with sesstime in the same way as sessid.

Note: sessid_oneip is an optional alternative to sessid. The default sessid behavior (automatic rotation to a new IP when the exit node expires) is unchanged.

Credentials list example:

The following credentials each establish a separate single-IP session, with a different country and session time:

customer-USERNAME-cc-DE-sessid_oneip-qwert-sesstime-10:PASSWORD
customer-USERNAME-cc-US-sessid_oneip-asdfg-sesstime-20:PASSWORD
customer-USERNAME-cc-GB-sessid_oneip-zxcvb-sesstime-30:PASSWORD

Code example

This example uses a German (DE) IP with sessid_oneip-qwert and a sesstime of 10 minutes. The IP stays fixed for the session; if it becomes unavailable, the request returns HTTP 502 instead of rotating:

cURL

curl -x pr.oxylabs.io:7777 -U "customer-USERNAME-cc-DE-sessid_oneip-qwert-sesstime-10:PASSWORD" https://ip.oxylabs.io/location

To use another language, take any sessid sample from the sections above and replace sessid with sessid_oneip in the login string.