Don't get scammed by “100% residential”

Is this IP really residential?

Proxy vendors love the word “residential”. This free tool checks whether an IP actually looks like real home broadband — or like rented / hosting space dressed up to pass a lazy check.

IPs only — never paste proxy usernames or passwords. Lines with logins are rejected.

How to read the verdicts

  • Looks like hosting / data center — Cloud or hosting signals: a known hosting network, or a data-center-style reverse DNS name.
  • Gray — leased / incomplete story — ISP-looking on the surface, but the registry shows reassignment through multiple organizations and home-style clues are weak. A yellow flag, not a verdict — reassignment can also be normal ISP paperwork (customer allocations, mergers, business lines).
  • Looks residential-style — Signals are compatible with a home / ISP connection. Not a clean bill: a real home line can still be someone's paid proxy exit, already shared with strangers.
  • Not enough signal — Public records don't say enough either way. Common outside North America, where registries publish less detail — it doesn't mean the IP is bad.

Under the hood we use public registry records (RDAP), reverse DNS, and a curated list of known hosting and mobile networks — no commercial “usage type” or fraud-score databases. That's deliberate: a low fraud score does not mean residential — it often just means “not blacklisted yet”, and leased ISP-looking space can score perfectly clean.

How the scam works

Pretty ASN

Buyers run the IP through an ASN or WHOIS tool, see Comcast / RCN / Vodafone, and stop there. But who routes an IP right now and who actually holds its registration are two different questions — the scam lives in that gap.

Rented blocks

Old IP address space gets leased and re-leased. A block can sit under a real ISP's ASN while actually being rented out to whoever pays — it still “looks like” an ISP on a lazy check.

Missing home fingerprints

Real home broadband often carries small fingerprints, like an ISP-style reverse DNS name, while rented pools often have none — or carry hosting-style names. Missing reverse DNS alone proves nothing, though: many mobile carriers and some legit ISPs never set it.

What vendors actually sell

“Residential” is a marketing word, not a spec. The labels usually map to very different things:

“Datacenter”Obvious hosting — shows up here as hosting / data center.
“ISP” / “static residential”Often business lines or ISP-leased space — this is where most of the gray theater lives.
“Residential” (peer / last-mile)Closest to a real home — but usually still a proxy product, not your own line.
“Mobile / 4G / 5G”Real carrier space with different rules (often no reverse DNS at all) — a different product, not a home connection.
“CGNAT / shared”Technically residential, but many users share each IP.

And to be explicit: “residential-style” on this tool does not mean unused, exclusive, or good for multi-account work — it only describes how the IP presents in public records.

Before you buy from any proxy vendor

  • ✓Ask the vendor for 5–10 sample exit IPs — from the actual pool, not the sales page.
  • ✓Check every sample here — one clean IP means nothing.
  • ✓Look for a pattern across samples. Mixed results are a yellow flag — but a perfectly consistent free sample list can be cherry-picked. Prefer exit IPs you pulled yourself from a real session (a trial or a paid session you control).
  • ✓If the vendor refuses to give sample exit IPs, that is itself an answer.

What this tool can and can't tell you

  • It does not prove an IP is safe for any platform, and never will.
  • “Seen before: unknown” does not mean the IP is unused — our view starts when people start checking. (Early on, almost everything will read “unknown” here: a crowd signal needs a crowd.)
  • Registry and DNS labels can lag reality or disagree with each other.
  • Always sample multiple IPs from a vendor — a single result proves nothing.
  • All verdicts are soft, pattern-based readings of public data.

Things we never check:

  • Whether traffic through a proxy actually works, or how stable / sticky the sessions are.
  • Claimed country or city — we don't validate geo, and geo databases on proxy IPs are often theater too.
  • Whether any platform already dislikes the IP.
  • Whether a residential-looking IP is someone's actual modem or a paid proxy exit — public records can't tell those apart.

Verify it yourself

This tool just automates the boring part. The same public records are one command away:

whois 203.0.113.10     # registry ownership + reassignments
dig -x 203.0.113.10    # reverse DNS

Frequently asked questions

What is a residential IP address?

An IP address that an internet service provider assigns to a home connection: cable, fibre or DSL to an actual house or flat. Data-center IPs belong to hosting companies, and mobile IPs to phone carriers. Proxy vendors use the word loosely, which is why this tool exists.

How can I tell if a proxy is really residential?

Get several real exit IPs from the vendor (ideally from a session you control, not the sales page) and check each one here. Look at who actually holds the registration, whether the block has been re-leased through several organisations, and whether the reverse DNS looks like a home ISP or a hosting company. One clean sample proves nothing; a consistent pattern across five to ten does.

What's the difference between ISP proxies and residential proxies?

"ISP" or "static residential" proxies are usually blocks leased from or registered under an ISP but hosted in a data center. They look like an ISP on a lazy ASN check, which is exactly the gray zone this tool flags. "Residential" proxies in the peer-to-peer sense route through real home devices, but the IP is still shared with strangers.

Does "looks residential-style" mean the IP is safe to use?

No. It only means the public records are compatible with a home connection. It does not tell you whether the IP is already shared, already flagged by a platform, or someone's actual modem versus a paid proxy exit. Public data cannot distinguish those cases.

Why does the tool say "not enough signal"?

Registries outside North America publish far less detail, and many mobile carriers never set reverse DNS. When the public record is thin the tool says so instead of guessing. It is not a bad sign about the IP.

Which data sources does this checker use?

Public registry records (RDAP from ARIN, RIPE, APNIC, LACNIC and AFRINIC), reverse DNS, and a curated list of known hosting and mobile networks. No commercial fraud-score or usage-type databases, on purpose: a low fraud score often just means not blacklisted yet.

Do you store the IPs I check?

The checked IP is recorded so the tool can show a "seen before" signal when several different people check the same address or block. Your own IP is stored only as a daily-rotating hash, never in the clear.

Related

The IP is only one part of the story — session stability, DNS / WebRTC leaks, and browser fingerprint consistency all matter too. For the browser side, check browserscan.net.

More free tools: Free QR code generator — no signup, no expiry, runs in your browser.

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