Inside Ping Proxies with Joseph Dye
Notes de l’épisode
Episode 13 – Inside Ping Proxies with Joseph Dye.
In this episode of Netstack.fm, Glen from Plabayo talks with Joseph Dye (Joe), founding engineer at Ping Proxies, about building large-scale proxy infrastructure in Rust. Joe shares how he went from art student to programmer, joining Ping when it was a tiny startup running on Python and Squid. He explains how they rebuilt everything in Rust, creating performant HTTP and SOCKS5 proxies and managing massive IP networks for web scraping. The conversation covers the evolution of their stack, challenges with HTTP versions, TCP/IP fingerprinting, user-space networking with DPDK, and the adoption of MASQUE and HTTP/3. Joe also reflects on Rust’s safety benefits, being the only Rust engineer at Ping, and how the company stays competitive through technical innovation rather than size.
Learn more:
- https://github.com/smoltcp-rs/smoltcp — A Rust-based user-space TCP/IP stack
- https://dpdk.org — The Data Plane Development Kit for high-performance packet processing and kernel bypass
- https://github.com/cloudflare/quiche — Cloudflare’s QUIC and HTTP/3 implementation, mentioned for MASQUE support w/ tokio support
- https://github.com/tokio-rs/tokio — The asynchronous runtime used by Ping Proxies for concurrency
- https://github.com/hyperium/h2 — Rust’s HTTP/2 library, referenced as part of Ping Proxies’ stack
- https://github.com/hyperium/h3 — Rust’s HTTP/3 library, used for advanced proxy tunneling
- https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc9298 — Proxying UDP in HTTP (MASQUE)
- https://ipxo.com — Marketplace for leasing IP addresses, discussed in how Ping acquires IP ranges
- https://pawns.app/sdk/ — Example of SDK-based residential proxy provider referenced in the episode
Rama
If you like this podcast you might also like our modular network framework in Rust: https://ramaproxy.org
Chapters
- 00:00 Intro
- 00:41 Introduction to Proxies and Joe's background
- 03:42 Understanding Pink Proxies and Their Offerings
- 06:52 The Technical Journey: From Squid to Rust
- 09:47 Proxy Types: Data Center vs. Residential
- 12:42 Building a Proxy Infrastructure
- 15:44 Challenges with HTTP Protocols
- 18:39 The Importance of Customization in Proxy Development
- 21:38 Team Dynamics and Future Growth
- 29:32 Transitioning to Rust Development
- 30:59 Understanding HTTP Protocols
- 32:40 Exploring HTTP/2 and HTTP/3
- 34:05 The Future of Proxying with Mask
- 36:14 Evaluating New Technologies for Proxies
- 37:51 Developing for End User Devices
- 39:49 Challenges in Network Stack Development
- 41:15 Proxying Non-HTTP Traffic
- 42:51 TCP/IP Fingerprinting Explained
- 47:57 The Importance of TCP/IP Fingerprinting
- 53:28 Performance Considerations in User Space TCP
- 58:22 Competing in the Proxy Market
- 01:00:05 Cancellation Safety in Rust Concurrency
- 01:03:53 Outro
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Music for this episode was composed by Dj Mailbox. Listen to his music at https://on.soundcloud.com/4MRyPSNj8FZoVGpytj.