First I want to say that SEO Spyglass is my absolute favorite SEO tool out there, but it has one (really, really annoying) problem: after about 3000 calculations (just three competitors, usually), it stops computing PageRank (both Google PR and Page PR).

I've read that I need to use a proxy, but I have no idea what a proxy is nor how to go about obtaining one.

With regards to SEO Spyglass, I absolutely need to be able to use the program continuously, and I'd be willing to pay a few bucks a month for a proxy if that will solve my problem.

Any recommendations?

A proxy server allows you to direct all queries through it, basically cloaking your IP address. You can try using a set of free proxies that SEO SpyGlass will find for you on the Internet (please go to Preferences -> Search safety settings -> Proxy rotation and click "Search").

Usually we recommend purchasing exclusive proxies (not public ones, that is not so overused) and using them when our customers need to direct large amounts of queries to the search engines. However it does not seem that you need to conceal that much querying, so most probably you will do with free proxies that the application can find.

Also there are ways to prevent getting temporary blocked by Google, please take a look:

http://www.link-assistant.com/support/i ... 9&nav=0,15

Brilliant, thank you!