Getting started: gateway, targeting and code

How do I test with curl?

Use -x for HTTP proxies and --socks5-hostname for SOCKS5; the -hostname variant sends the hostname to the proxy instead of resolving it on your machine.

# UAE, a new home IP on each new connection (each curl run)
curl -x http://USERNAME-country-ae:[email protected]:7777 https://ipinfo.io/json

# Riyadh, the same IP for 30 minutes (session id r1)
curl -x http://USERNAME-country-sa-city-riyadh-session-r1-ttl-30:[email protected]:7777 https://ipinfo.io/json

# Egypt over SOCKS5, hostname resolved by the proxy
curl --socks5-hostname gw.menaproxies.com:7778 -U USERNAME-country-eg:PASSWORD https://ipinfo.io/json

How do I use it from Python, with retries?

Home connections come and go, so a request can occasionally fail on a slow or disconnected IP. Retry with a new IP rather than waiting: without a session ID, each retry gets a new one. Encode the password if it contains special characters.

import time
from urllib.parse import quote
import requests

GATEWAY = "gw.menaproxies.com:7777"
USER, PASSWORD = "USERNAME", quote("PASSWORD", safe="")

def fetch(url, country, session=None, ttl=30, tries=3):
    for attempt in range(1, tries + 1):
        user = f"{USER}-country-{country}"
        if session:  # a new session ID per attempt, so each retry gets a new IP
            user += f"-session-{session}{attempt}-ttl-{ttl}"
        proxy = f"http://{user}:{PASSWORD}@{GATEWAY}"
        try:
            r = requests.get(url, proxies={"http": proxy, "https": proxy}, timeout=30)
            if r.status_code < 500:
                return r
        except requests.RequestException:
            pass
        if attempt < tries:
            time.sleep(2 * attempt)  # back off, then retry on a new IP
    raise RuntimeError(f"{url} failed {tries} times via {country}")

for cc in ["ae", "sa", "eg"]:
    print(cc, fetch("https://ipinfo.io/json", cc).json().get("country"))

How do I use it in a browser with Playwright?

Pass the gateway as the browser's proxy and the targeting in the username. Set the locale and time zone to match the country, so that pages render as they would for a local visitor.

from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright

with sync_playwright() as p:
    browser = p.chromium.launch(proxy={
        "server": "http://gw.menaproxies.com:7777",
        "username": "USERNAME-country-sa-city-riyadh-session-pw1-ttl-30",
        "password": "PASSWORD",
    })
    context = browser.new_context(locale="ar-SA", timezone_id="Asia/Riyadh")
    page = context.new_page()
    page.goto("https://ipinfo.io/json")
    print(page.text_content("body"))
    browser.close()

Which cities and operators can I target?

City targeting works where the pool has home IPs online in that city. The list changes through the day, so read it before a city-level run: the dashboard shows it, and the API returns it with GET /v1/catalog/countries/{CC}/cities (upper case in the API, lower case in the proxy username) (see the API documentation). If a city has no IP online, drop the city and use country targeting.

To pick an operator, add its ASN: USERNAME-country-ae-asn-5384 exits on e& in the UAE. ASN targeting costs nothing extra; GET /v1/catalog/countries/{CC}/asns lists the ASNs online in a country, and availability varies.

Useful city IDs: dubai, abu_dhabi, sharjah (UAE); riyadh, jeddah, dammam (Saudi Arabia); doha (Qatar); cairo, alexandria, giza (Egypt); casablanca, rabat (Morocco); amman (Jordan); beirut (Lebanon).

What usually goes wrong?

• 407 Proxy Authentication Required: wrong username or password, or a special character in the password that was not URL-encoded.
• Connection refused or timeout: wrong port; HTTP clients need 7777, SOCKS5 clients 7778.
• Exit in the wrong country: the country code is missing or misspelled in the username; codes are two letters, lower case.
• No IP in the city: the city has no home IP online right now; use country targeting or try later.
• Request refused at the gateway: the target is in a blocked category (Banking, government and payment-portal sites, plus SMTP (email-sending) ports 25, 465 and 587).
• Plan exhausted: the plan has used all its GB; buy another from your balance.