# Targeting and sessions

Source: https://ipvolt.com/docs/residential-sessions
Markdown: https://ipvolt.com/docs/residential-sessions.md

[Home](https://ipvolt.com/index.md) / [Docs](https://ipvolt.com/docs.md) / [Targeting and sessions](https://ipvolt.com/docs/residential-sessions.md)

Section: Residential proxies
Updated: 2026-11-11
Author: ipvolt

The residential username format: how to select a country, rotate the IP on every connection or keep a sticky session, and how long a session lasts.

The username carries your choices. This page explains what each part does. The dashboard's **Advanced** section builds these usernames for you, so copy lines from there rather than typing them: a misspelt word is ignored without an error.

## The username format

The username is your account name followed by your choices, joined by hyphens: the network, the country, then any session settings. The password is always your key.

```text
ACCOUNT-peer-us-iptype-residential
```

| Part | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `ACCOUNT` | Your account name, shown in the dashboard's connection details. |
| `peer` | The residential network. `mbl` is the mobile network (see below). |
| `us` | The two-letter country code. |
| `iptype-residential` | Asks for addresses classed as residential. |

## Choose a country

Change the country code: `ACCOUNT-peer-de-iptype-residential`, `ACCOUNT-peer-gb-iptype-residential`. A pack is not tied to a country, and the same GB work in every country the network has. The dashboard lists the countries available now. Availability changes with the network, and a filter that matches nothing is refused rather than widened.

## Rotating sessions

Without a session ID, each new connection is routed again and can leave from a different IP. This is the username the dashboard gives you first, and it suits requests that do not depend on each other.

## Sticky sessions

Add a session ID to keep one binding across connections:

```text
ACCOUNT-peer-us-iptype-residential-sid-task1-rot-sticky-ttl-3600
```

| Part | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `sid-task1` | The session ID: lowercase letters, digits and underscores, up to 64 characters. Reuse it to return to the same binding. |
| `rot-sticky` | Sticky rotation: prefer the same IP for the whole session. |
| `ttl-3600` | How long the binding is kept, in seconds. |

Instead of `rot-sticky`, a timed rotation moves the session to a new IP after a set time: `rot-auto5`, `rot-auto10`, `rot-auto20`, `rot-auto60` for 5, 10, 20 or 60 minutes. It is checked on the next connection after the interval. Open connections are not cut, and a different IP is not guaranteed.

## How long a sticky session lasts

The dashboard offers five lifetimes for the binding: 1 hour, 6 hours, 1 day, 7 days and 30 days. That is how long the session is remembered. It is not a promise that one IP or one connection lasts that long: a network change can still change the IP.

Keep one session for the steps of one task on one site, such as a login. For many sites, use a separate session for each. After a 502 or a dropped connection, try again with a new session ID, because the same session returns to the same device.

## Mobile per GB

Dedicated mobile is one device rented by the day, with no traffic limit. Mobile per GB uses the same prepaid GB on a shared pool of carrier modems. Pick Mobile as the network in the dashboard, and the username names the mobile network instead:

```text
ACCOUNT-mbl-us
```

The mobile network takes no `iptype` setting, and it has fewer countries than the residential network.

## More documentation

- Previous: [Residential quickstart](https://ipvolt.com/docs/residential-quickstart.md)
- Next: [Usage and billing](https://ipvolt.com/docs/residential-usage.md)
- [All documentation](https://ipvolt.com/docs.md)