Inside Ping Proxies with Joseph Dye

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

Netstack.FM

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Music for this episode was composed by Dj Mailbox. Listen to his music at https://on.soundcloud.com/4MRyPSNj8FZoVGpytj.