What is an Akamai bot manager?
Akamai offers an array of web services, encompassing the formidable Bot Manager service, adept at discriminating between human users and automated programs accessing websites. While the primary role of Bot Manager is to fend off malevolent bots, it inadvertently hinders web crawling tools from acquiring publicly available data.
Embraced by renowned platforms like Ebay.com, Airbnb.com, and Amazon.com, the Akamai Bot Manager is the citadel of fortification for their network assets. Although it poses a formidable challenge to web scraping endeavors, it is by no means insurmountable.
Employing cutting-edge technology and astute algorithms, Akamai Bot Manager exerts acumen in discerning the distinction between human users and automated entities. A bevy of factors, such as user behavior, request mode, and IP address, engender an analytical panorama, enabling Bot Manager to erect an efficacious bulwark, resolutely ensuring that website resources remain the exclusive purview of authentic users, invulnerable to pernicious robotic intrusion.
How do I check if a website employs an Akamai bot manager?
Before exploring methods to evade Akamai bot detection, it is imperative to ascertain whether the target website employs Akamai technology.
To initiate the process, you must first log into the Akamai Control Center, bearing in mind that valid credentials and appropriate permissions are prerequisites for access.
Next, proceed to select your desired service and navigate to the Support tab, followed by choosing Diagnostic Tools, and finally clicking on Debug URL.
In the subsequent step, enter the website URL to be scrutinized, ensuring to include the protocol (e.g., https://example.com).
After entering the URL, proceed to examine the results. If the URL resolves to an IP address, it signifies that the website is indeed utilizing Akamai technology.
Pay close attention to the results; if they display “URL: Give URL/Hostname not akamized”, it conclusively indicates that the site does not rely on Akamai services.
How do I bypass Akamai bot detection?
Rotating proxies
When engaging in website scraping, your IP address becomes conspicuously exposed unless shielded by a proxy. Should you surpass the prescribed threshold set by the website, the peril of being summarily blocked looms, with the retribution delivered in a mere fraction of a second. Transgressing this critical demarcation accords the unwelcome label of site rulebreaker. Engendering multiple requests utilizing a singular IP address invites the high probability of encountering the dreaded blockage.
To circumvent this precarious scenario, the procurement of diverse IP addresses assumes paramount significance, and this is precisely where proxies emerge as the veritable panacea.
Proxies confer the virtue of veiling your virtual identity, enshrouding you in the sanctum of anonymity while deftly extracting data through scraping endeavors. Furthermore, certain proxies boast an automatic rotation feature, orchestrating the periodic alteration of your IP address when transmitting requests. Consequently, this perpetually fluctuating facade hampers websites from deciphering your true identity or inhibiting your access.
Thus, to effectively navigate Akamai’s resolute protection, the wise recourse lies in availing the services of reputable proxy providers, ensconced in the comfort of robust rotation mechanisms. A plethora of proxy vendors populate the market, yet for users necessitating an avalanche of requests, the indisputable recourse revolves around the dependable residential proxy. Though slightly pricier than data center proxies and potentially lacking the latter’s swiftness, the residential proxy derives its essence from physical devices, thereby furnishing the hallowed assurance of eluding Akamai’s detection while adroitly metamorphosing proxies at will, culminating in a seamless and unhindered website crawling experience.
Use headless browser
At this juncture, the strategic deployment of a headless browser, such as Selenium, becomes an imperative panacea. These headless browsers impeccably simulate real browsers, akin to Chrome, albeit bereft of any graphical interface. This indomitable prowess empowers them to download and surmount Akamai’s challenges, hitherto unassailable. When synergistically paired with stellar proxies, they can replicate the behavior of genuine users with astonishing verisimilitude.
Rotate User Agent and Corresponding HTTP Headers
A user agent serves as a means to relay information to a web server, disclosing the type of web browser employed. Accurate user agent representation is crucial, as it grants access to website content. Verifying your user agent can be achieved swiftly by inputting “What is my user agent?” into Google Search.
Repeated usage of the same user agent may lead Akamai systems to identify you as a robot and consequently obstruct your access. To navigate around this detection and blocking, the adoption of a forged user agent becomes necessary. Alternating between different user agents periodically is advised to avoid detection as a bot by the Akamai system.
Browser developer tools furnish access to diverse user agents catering to varying browser software, operating systems, platforms, software and hardware types, and rendering engines.
Rotating user agents proves to be an effective strategy to elude rudimentary Akamai detection and blocking. However, if your bot remains barred even after changing the user agent, employing additional HTTP header information to further mask your requests might be required. Implementing a range of HTTP header fields will render your requests more akin to those originating from authentic users, further augmenting your disguise.
Captcha solving services
Utilizing verification codes as a solution is indeed an effective method to overcome Akamai’s blocking measures. Captcha-solving services leverage OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology to autonomously resolve captchas, thus circumventing the human-computer verification process on websites.
Several trustworthy captcha-solving tools, including EndCaptcha, Captcha Sniper, and 2Captcha, serve as prevalent captcha-solving service providers. These platforms furnish prompt and accurate captcha solutions at a relatively low cost, especially when engaging in large-scale scraping endeavors.
By availing of these captcha-solving services, you can forward captchas to the service providers, who will seamlessly process and return the resolved results. Consequently, you can effortlessly bypass captchas and ensure smooth crawling by submitting the resolved captcha along with your request to the target site.
Bypassing Akamai’s protection can be a tedious and time-consuming endeavor, but now there’s a solution that can alleviate these concerns. Allow me to introduce you to the ScrapingBypass web scraping API! With ScrapingBypass, you can delegate all intricate web scraping and bypass procedures to its capable hands.
ScrapingBypass not only facilitates bypassing Akamai’s protection but also boasts an array of robust web scraping features. Firstly, it harnesses the support of millions of residential proxies across the globe, enabling you to emulate real users from diverse countries and regions. Moreover, ScrapingBypass possesses the ability to bypass Akamai, Cloudflare, and any other anti-scraping measures.
But that’s not all! ScrapingBypass also functions as a headless cloud browser, proficient in rendering JavaScript pages and automating browser operations. This proves especially advantageous when dealing with websites reliant on JavaScript rendering.
With ScrapingBypass, you no longer need to develop and maintain intricate bypass strategies on your own. It furnishes you with a simple yet powerful solution, allowing you to concentrate on the data-scraping tasks that truly matter to you.