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
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Music for this episode was composed by Dj Mailbox. Listen to his music at / 4mrypsnj8fzovgpytj .