Hotspot Shield is a free VPN connection from AnchorFree that is designed to make your web browsing safer when you’re on the go. By routing all of your traffic through a secure VPN connection, you would gain these benefits according to their website:

  • Hide your IP while you’re online.
  • Access all content without censorship; bypass firewalls.
  • Protect yourself from snoopers at Wi-Fi hotspots, hotels, airports, corporate offices and ISP hubs.
  • Works on wireless and wired connections alike.

To get started, you download the 4.9 MB installer and run through the setup which will take up a 13.7 MB installed footprint. During the setup, you’ll want to pay careful attention as there are a number of options you are not likely to want set on your computer (and frankly makes the whole software seem a little sketchy as a first impression). I prefer a very lean installation and if you do as well, uncheck:

  • Install Hotspot Shield Community toolbar
  • Set the Hotspot Shield Private Search as my default in IE
  • Set my home page to the Hotspot Shield Private Search page
  • Enable me to get instant hotspot shield privacy and security alerts
  • Fix “page not found” errors

One of the things you will notice if you’re monitoring the installation process is that it will install a ‘Hotspot Shield Routing driver’. Not that there is anything to be unexpected by that, but installing at the driver-level does require a little bit of trust and mean the installation can be a little more complicated.

Once you get the service installed there will be a shortcut on your desktop and if the service is running, a system tray icon to go along with it. You can control the connection through the system tray icon and it has a legend as follows: red – disconnected, yellow – connecting, green – connected.
systemtray

When you are connected, you’ll be taken to this page telling you that you’re connected with Hotspot Shield and you can search securely through an Ask.com bar. If you double-click on the desktop icon to connect or check the status of the connection, you’ll be taken to this URL: http://127.0.0.1:895/config/?action=connect〈=eng which shows you your status and VPN IP address.

status

When you continue your browsing, you’ll find that Hotspot Shield is ad supported. On every page you’ll see a banner ad like this at the top of the window:

google

It’s not a terrible trade off for the service, but it does impact your browsing experience and you should throw this into the mix to determine if this is worth it to you. A number of people outside the US use Hotspot Shield in order to access license limited services like Hulu. Hotspot Shield is listed as working with these operating systems:

  • Windows Vista
  • Windows XP
  • Windows 2000
  • Mac OS X (10.5 Leopard)
  • Mac OS X (10.4 Tiger)

Version reviewed: 1.30
If you’re interested in the service provided by Hotspot Shield, you can learn more and download it from http://hotspotshield.com/

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