Residential proxies with Go (net/http)

Get your credentials

Your username and password are on the Proxy generator page of the dashboard. Use the password exactly as shown there; country, state, city and session options all go in the username.

Build the proxy URL with url.UserPassword rather than a string, so special characters in the password are encoded for you.

Send a request through a rotating IP

This client uses port 9000. DisableKeepAlives makes each request open a new connection, and so a new tunnel and a new IP. Without it, Go reuses connections and several requests can share one IP.

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"
	"net/url"
	"time"
)

func main() {
	proxyURL := &url.URL{
		Scheme: "http",
		User:   url.UserPassword("<USERNAME>-type-residential-country-us", "<PASSWORD>"),
		Host:   "gw.nodelighthouse.com:9000",
	}
	client := &http.Client{
		Transport: &http.Transport{
			Proxy:             http.ProxyURL(proxyURL),
			DisableKeepAlives: true,
		},
		Timeout: 30 * time.Second,
	}

	for i := 0; i < 3; i++ {
		resp, err := client.Get("https://api.ipify.org")
		if err != nil {
			fmt.Println("error:", err)
			continue
		}
		body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
		resp.Body.Close()
		fmt.Println(string(body))
	}
}

Keep one IP with a sticky session

Use port 10000 and a session id of 8 characters from a-z and 0-9. Here keep-alives can stay on, since every request should use the same IP anyway.

package main

import (
	"crypto/rand"
	"encoding/hex"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"
	"net/url"
	"time"
)

func stickyClient() *http.Client {
	b := make([]byte, 4)
	rand.Read(b)
	sessionID := hex.EncodeToString(b) // 8 chars, a-f0-9

	proxyURL := &url.URL{
		Scheme: "http",
		User:   url.UserPassword("<USERNAME>-type-residential-country-us-lifetime-10-session-"+sessionID, "<PASSWORD>"),
		Host:   "gw.nodelighthouse.com:10000",
	}
	return &http.Client{
		Transport: &http.Transport{Proxy: http.ProxyURL(proxyURL)},
		Timeout:   30 * time.Second,
	}
}

func main() {
	client := stickyClient()
	for i := 0; i < 2; i++ {
		resp, err := client.Get("https://api.ipify.org")
		if err != nil {
			fmt.Println("error:", err)
			return
		}
		body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
		resp.Body.Close()
		fmt.Println(string(body)) // same IP both times
	}
}

Use SOCKS5

net/http supports SOCKS5 proxies through the same Proxy field: change the scheme to socks5 and the port to 11000. Go's SOCKS5 client sends the hostname to the proxy, so DNS resolves on the proxy side.

proxyURL := &url.URL{
	Scheme: "socks5",
	User:   url.UserPassword("<USERNAME>-type-residential-country-us", "<PASSWORD>"),
	Host:   "gw.nodelighthouse.com:11000",
}
client := &http.Client{Transport: &http.Transport{Proxy: http.ProxyURL(proxyURL)}}

Questions

Why does url.Parse fail on my proxy string?

url.Parse rejects some characters in the user-info part, and the <USERNAME> placeholder contains < and >. Replace the placeholders with your real credentials, or build the URL with url.UserPassword as shown, which encodes them for you.

Can I set the proxy with an environment variable?

Yes. http.ProxyFromEnvironment (the default Transport's setting) reads HTTPS_PROXY and HTTP_PROXY, for example HTTPS_PROXY=http://<USERNAME>-type-residential-country-us:<PASSWORD>@gw.nodelighthouse.com:9000. Setting Proxy explicitly is clearer when one program uses several sessions.

How do I run many sticky sessions at once?

Create one http.Client per session, each with its own session id in the username. Clients are safe for concurrent use, so goroutines working on the same session can share one.