Whoer Checks on a US Carrier Connection

Whoer is one of the older IP check sites, and its single headline disguise score makes it popular with people who want a quick yes or no. Behind that score is a short list of checks: whether your system time zone matches the address, whether DNS resolvers are in the same country, whether the browser language fits, whether a proxy or anonymizer is detected, and whether the address appears on blacklists. Loading it through a SpoofProxies line is a quick way to catch configuration slips. It is also easy to take the score too seriously. Here is what it measures and what it misses.

The checks behind the headline score

Each failed check subtracts from the score. Whoer shows which items reduced it, so the useful part of the page is that breakdown rather than the headline figure.

On a correctly configured carrier line, the items you are most likely to see deducted are the ones tied to the shared address rather than to your settings, which the next sections cover.

• Time zone: system time compared with the time zone expected for the address.
• DNS: whether the resolvers answering for you are in the same country and network area as the address.
• Language: whether the browser language fits the address's country.
• Proxy and anonymizer: header clues and database matches that suggest an intermediary.
• Blacklists: whether the address appears on common spam and abuse lists.

Clearing the configuration items

Three of the checks are entirely under your control. Set the device or browser time zone to the metro of the line. Use a US English browser language. Make sure DNS is resolved through the proxy, which you get with an HTTP proxy or with SOCKS5 and remote DNS, rather than by your local router. If Whoer still shows a foreign resolver, your client is looking names up locally.

Getting these right is not a trick. A real person on a phone in Chicago has a Chicago time zone, English settings and their carrier's resolvers. You are only removing contradictions that your own setup introduced.

The proxy and blacklist items on a mobile address

The proxy item and the blacklist item depend on the address rather than your settings. A carrier address is shared through carrier-grade NAT, so it may appear on an abuse list because another phone behind it sent spam or was infected, and a proxy database may carry a label from another device that once used the same pool address. On our lines the network owner will be AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon and the connection will be mobile, which is the context any serious site reads those flags against.

Some Whoer fields, including fraud-style figures that come from third-party sources, may describe the whole provider or network rather than your specific address. Read the label next to each figure before assuming it is about you.

Why the single score misleads

A single number invites the idea that a perfect score means safe and a lower score means blocked. Neither is how platforms decide. They run their own checks with their own weights, and most of those weights sit on things Whoer does not look at: account history, device fingerprint, the pace of actions, payment details and reports from other users. A line with a middling Whoer score because of an inherited blacklist entry will often be treated perfectly well by sites that see a mobile carrier address and a consistent profile. And a perfect Whoer score does nothing for an account whose behaviour breaks a platform's rules.

Whoer also sells its own VPN, so the page is partly a product funnel. That does not make its checks wrong, but it is worth keeping in mind.

A short routine

Use Whoer after setting up a new profile on a line, and after moving the line to another metro. Fix any time zone, DNS or language item it reports. Note the proxy and blacklist items without chasing them; if an address is on a current blacklist and that matters for your work, rotate once and check the next pool address. Then get on with the actual task. Our 4G lines are $6 a day, $31 a week or $72 a month, 5G lines $7, $36 or $85, all with unlimited data, so a few check runs cost nothing.

Setting up a Whoer proxy on SpoofProxies

1. Add a line and copy its host, port, username and password.
2. Set the device or browser time zone and language to the line's metro.
3. Configure the browser with the line, using HTTP or SOCKS5 with remote DNS.
4. Open Whoer and read the breakdown of items rather than the headline score.
5. Fix any time zone, DNS or language item, then reload.
6. Note proxy and blacklist items and rotate once only if a current listing matters for your work.

Whoer proxy questions