IP2Location Usage Types for Mobile IPs

IP2Location publishes a family of databases that many smaller sites, ad tools and fraud filters use because they can be downloaded and queried locally. Two products matter for mobile proxies: the IP2Location database itself, which describes where an address is and what kind of network owns it, and IP2Proxy, which says whether an address is used as a VPN, proxy or other anonymizing service. If you check a SpoofProxies line against either one, you will see fields that are unusually direct about mobile networks. This page decodes them and explains their limits.

The usage type field

IP2Location assigns each range a usage type code. The ones you meet most often are MOB for mobile ISPs, ISP for fixed-line consumer providers, DCH for data centres and hosting, COM for commercial organisations, and a few others for education, government and content delivery networks. Some ranges carry two codes, such as ISP and MOB together, when a provider sells both fixed and mobile service from the same block. A carrier line on AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon should read MOB or a combination that includes it.

Usage type is often the first field a filter checks, because it is cheap and blunt. A DCH result tells a site the visitor is coming from a server, which is rarely a person. A MOB result tells it the visitor is on a phone network, which is where most real users are.

Mobile carrier fields and what they reveal

The higher tiers of the IP2Location database include a mobile brand name together with the mobile country code and mobile network code, the same identifiers phones use to recognise a carrier. For a US line you would see the US country code and a network code belonging to the carrier. These fields exist because advertisers want to target by carrier, and fraud teams want to know when a claimed carrier does not match the network. For your purposes they are a quick confirmation that the line is what you ordered.

The database also carries an area code, a ZIP code field, a time zone and sometimes a district. On a mobile range those are regional estimates in the same way the city is. Use the time zone field as the reference for your browser or device settings.

IP2Proxy categories

IP2Proxy answers a different question from the location database: has this address been seen acting as an intermediary? Its proxy type field uses short codes, and a single address can carry a type along with a threat or provider field. On a carrier line, the VPN, TOR, DCH and PUB categories should not apply because the address is not a server. The RES category is the one that can appear, and the explanation is the familiar one for shared mobile pools. A carrier address rotates among many devices, and if any of them was ever observed relaying proxy traffic, the label may linger on that pool address for a time. It describes the address history, not whether your particular session is honest.

• VPN for addresses tied to anonymizing VPN services.
• TOR for Tor exit nodes.
• DCH for hosting and data-centre ranges.
• PUB for open public proxies, and WEB for web-based proxies.
• SES for search engine crawlers.
• RES for addresses observed carrying residential proxy traffic, and CPN or EPN for consumer and enterprise privacy networks.

Freshness, downloads and mismatched answers

Because IP2Location is sold as downloadable files, different sites may be running different editions. A site that updated last week and one that updated months ago can give different answers about the same mobile address, especially for proxy categories that change quickly. If a lookup on the IP2Location website disagrees with what a particular service seems to believe, the service may simply be using older data. You cannot fix that from your side, and rotating repeatedly to chase a label is not a useful habit. Note it, move on, and judge a platform by how it actually treats a consistent, well-behaved session.

What the databases leave out

Neither database sees a browser, a cookie, a keystroke or an account. They cannot tell that a line is dedicated to one customer, and they cannot count how many phones share a carrier address at a given second. They are also silent about intent. A MOB usage type with no proxy label is a good network description; it is not a pass. When a site challenges a session on a clean-reading mobile address, look at the parts of the setup the database cannot see: a time zone that does not match, an account that jumped metros, or automation pacing that no person would produce. And whatever the lookup says, the platform's own rules decide what is allowed.

Setting up a IP2Location proxy on SpoofProxies

1. Add a line in the metro you need and copy its credentials from the dashboard.
2. Route a clean browser profile or test device through the line and confirm the exit address.
3. Look the address up on the IP2Location demo page and record usage type, mobile brand and time zone.
4. Check the same address in the IP2Proxy demo and note the proxy type, if any.
5. Align the profile's time zone and language with the reported region.
6. Keep the notes as your baseline and recheck after a location move.

IP2Location proxy questions