Writing
Notes from the network
Long-form pieces on proxy selection, bot detection, scraping tradecraft, and the parts of the internet we spend our days routing traffic across.
6 min read · Priya Chen
CGNAT on T-Mobile 5G: why it's both a feature and a trap
T-Mobile's standalone 5G CGNAT sits behind the widest subscriber pool in US mobile. That's the proxy operator's dream — and also the port-exhaustion trap that catches new operators. Field-level notes.
- t-mobile
- 5g
- cgnat
- mobile-proxies
- 2026
6 min read · Lena Ortiz
US SERP personalization: how much does the exit ZIP actually matter?
Measured the same Google SERP from 50 US ZIPs across 20 DMAs. Local pack ranks move, retail and services tabs differ, organic rank shifts are smaller than expected. Here's what we saw in 2026.
- serp-monitoring
- seo
- google-local
- us-proxies
- 2026
6 min read · Jordan Ames
TikTok fingerprinting on US mobile IPs: a 2026 teardown
How TikTok's US integrity stack reads carrier ASN, BGP path, and device correlation windows in 2026 — what signals it weights, what shifted in the last year, and what it means for operators.
- tiktok
- mobile-proxies
- fingerprinting
- integrity-stacks
- 2026
6 min read · Priya Chen
Why US retail anti-bot treats Comcast different from Spectrum
Both are top-2 US cable ISPs; both read as residential on commercial GeoIP. But retail fraud-stacks score Comcast AS7922 and Spectrum AS20115 distinctly. Here's why, and what to do about it.
- residential-proxies
- retail-anti-bot
- comcast
- spectrum
- carriers
- 2026
6 min read · Lena Ortiz
The DMA map that actually matters for US ad verification
Why Nielsen DMA boundaries matter more than state boundaries for US ad verification — which 50 DMAs to rotate through, and how to target them from a carrier ASN rotation.
- ad-verification
- dma
- adtech
- us-proxies
- 2026
6 min read · Jordan Ames
T-Mobile vs Verizon vs AT&T for mobile proxy operations in 2026
A head-to-head on the three US carrier ASNs for proxy operators in 2026 — coverage, CGNAT behavior, fingerprint weighting, and which one wins for which workload.
- mobile-proxies
- carriers
- t-mobile
- verizon
- att
- 2026
26 min read · Jordan Ames
The complete US proxy field guide — 2026 edition
A long-form, network-honest field guide to US proxy operations — carriers, ASNs, DMAs, anti-bot stacks, residential vs mobile tradeoffs, pricing, compliance, and where the market is heading in 2026.
- pillar
- us-proxies
- carriers
- mobile-proxies
- residential-proxies
- compliance
- 2026
5 min read · Nadine Kowalski
The 2026 US sneaker bot landscape — and what it means for which exit class still works
An operator's look at the US sneaker/retail anti-bot stacks as they look in early 2026: SNKRS, Adidas Confirmed, Shopify Plus, Footlocker. Which exit class still holds, where the BOTS Act line actually sits, and what we won't sell for.
- sneaker
- us
- drop-day
- shopify-plus
- snkrs
- bots-act
6 min read · Nadine Kowalski
What TikTok actually checks on US mobile IPs in 2026
A field guide to the TikTok US integrity stack as it shipped through 2025 — ASN class, carrier DNS consistency, 14-day rolling identity, and where each of those signals breaks down in practice.
- tiktok
- mobile
- us
- fingerprint
- integrity
6 min read · Dev Morales
Why US residential proxies behave differently from EU residential — even on the same target
Two "residential" exits on the same country target can score differently because the underlying networks don't look the same. A walk through the ASN trust differences, CGNAT prevalence, and why Comcast ≠ Deutsche Telekom under the hood.
- residential
- us
- asn-trust
- cgnat