Protocols

Each ISP IP supports HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 on the same port (8000). The protocol is auto-detected from your client handshake — there's nothing to configure per IP.

HTTP / HTTPS

# HTTP target
curl -x http://helo_s1a2b3c4d5e:PASSWORD@198.51.100.42:8000 http://example.com

# HTTPS target (end-to-end TLS)
curl -x http://helo_s1a2b3c4d5e:PASSWORD@198.51.100.42:8000 https://example.com

For HTTPS targets the client sends CONNECT example.com:443 to the proxy, which opens a TCP tunnel. helodata never sees the request body.

SOCKS5

curl --socks5-hostname helo_s1a2b3c4d5e:PASSWORD@198.51.100.42:8000 \
     https://ipv4.icanhazip.com

Use --socks5-hostname (curl) or socks5h:// (Python requests, others) to make the proxy do DNS — otherwise your local resolver leaks DNS and breaks geo-based services.

Python

import requests
proxy = "socks5h://helo_s1a2b3c4d5e:PASSWORD@198.51.100.42:8000"
r = requests.get("https://ipv4.icanhazip.com",
                 proxies={"http": proxy, "https": proxy}, timeout=30)

Node.js

import { SocksProxyAgent } from "socks-proxy-agent";
import fetch from "node-fetch";
const agent = new SocksProxyAgent("socks5://helo_s1a2b3c4d5e:PASSWORD@198.51.100.42:8000");
const res = await fetch("https://ipv4.icanhazip.com", { agent });

When to prefer which

The trade-offs are the same as residential. See Residential protocols for the full table.

ISP-specific notes

• HTTP/2 to the target works through the CONNECT tunnel. helodata does not downgrade.
• Long-lived connections — ISP IPs are stable, so connection pools (HTTP keep-alive, HTTP/2 multiplexing) pay off handsomely. Hold connections; don't reconnect per request.
• WebSocket and gRPC work; treat the IP as a normal HTTP proxy for these.

What we do not support

• SOCKS4 / SOCKS4a — use SOCKS5
• Username-encoded targeting (no -type-, -region-, etc.) — ISP credentials are plain user:pass. Anything you try to add to the username will be sent to the gateway as-is and rejected with 407 auth-failed.