Is the piggybox a worthwhile investment?
PiggyBox is an appliance they send you for free and you can earn by sharing IP with the third-party. They state you will earn $10/mo for offering your IP address for them to use. The first PiggyBox is free to the mailing address.
Whether you should buy more units for $25 each with free shipping depends on whether you want to take the investment risk and whether you have spare WAN IPs on your internet service. Bright Data (the makers of ThePiggyBox) have specific requirements for the type IP you can use. You can not use IPs classed as data center nor mobile. The IP may work for a time, but do not be surprised if the PiggyBox is disconnected if you are not truly using a residential IP.
How long does ThePiggyBox take to receive?
I received a complimentary unit from PiggyBox within a few weeks. You can receive a free one too if you use a virgin/new household address. I purchased 3 more at $25/ea because I have a block of IPs from AT&T that I rent. I initially had issues getting the first device recognized correctly, but tech support eventually fixed it after 3 weeks. They state you can earn $10/mo per device.
Receiving 3 more units also took a few weeks to receive via USPS First Class Mail. . With each unit, you receive the piggybox, power adapter (micro Android to AC 10W 5v 2A), and ethernet cables. How did I setup the PiggyBoxes?
I roped them, put the ethernet cable into the switch, and power connector to the surge protector.
As an experiment, I plugged my Android data cables to 60W 10-port charging station and it worked fine. Using my USB volt and amperage detector, it rarely went over 5V and 0.2A so it seems to use up to 1.0W per device when active.
Initially, the IP recognized by the unit was off but it eventually settled down to the WAN IPs after 1 day. You are unable to change the IP through the device, so it has to be done by your own hardware. AT&T modem/router BGW320 has an IP allocation feature (static public WAN) for up to 17 devices. Ubiquiti Edge Routers are also popular for getting devices to be assigned a specific WAN IPs.
Does PiggyBox actually pay out?
Payment proof from PiggyBox. Bright Data Limited (Ltd.) is the parent company that also runs the Earn app.
You can also receive payment via Amazon gift card, but their minimum is $50.
Is ThePiggyBox worth spending time on?
I am in the process of returning my PiggyBoxes. After 2.5 months of usage, my first free piggybox that I put on my main IP has a fraud score of 89. It is considered risk and was blacklisted for Mail Spam and being detected as a proxy/VPN.
In short, no. The reputation to your IP address will be damaged. It took my IP about 2.5 months to considered high risk for spam (sorbs blacklisted) and considered a proxy/vpn. You can earn more in others (not using a bandwidth app) than killing your IP quality and earning $10/mo for 3 months. After that, you will run into different issues using a bandwidth app.
For example:
- Google may force you to perform more Google reCAPTCHA of higher difficulty,
- require you to perform two factor authentication (2FA) when logging into via social login,
- you are blacklisted from other web sites such as SerpClix for having a bad quality IP address