Sciencetext Tips & Tricks

Tech talk, social media, blogging, computing tips and tricks

Hide WiFi Behind a Hotspot Shield

January 9th, 2008 · by David Bradley >> 27 Comments

Hotspot shield logoDO NOT USE HOTSPOT SHIELD.

If you use WiFi access in public places or even at home or in an office, you could be open to all kinds of scams. Anyone with the know-how could access your login details, credit card number and other information without you knowing while you use sites like Amazon, eBay, Paypal etc, they could even, perish the thought, take your turn in Facebook Scrabulous without you knowing!

The BBC’s Real Hustle shows you just how easily it could happen to you

Concerned? You needn’t be, just download, install and fire up a virtual private network (VPN) client and you can surf wirelessly confidant that your computer is hidden behind an anonymizing shield. VPN clients provide geolocking, which means you should be able to access websites via the backdoor as if from any country in the world. Which means if you are in UAE, for example, you may still be able to log into Orkut, Facebook, or any other banned site, or if you’re in the UK you could get to your Pandora online streaming radio account once again (they’re shutting down access after January 15, 2008).

A US-based VPN system means anyone outside the US can “pretend” to be in the US so that they can access Hulu.com free TV channels and movies. Not sure about the legality of doing so, but more irritatingly is that it’s quite a jittery viewing experience, so you’d probably want to wait for Hulu UK and Hulu Australia (coming soon…)

27 responses so far ↓

  • Will B. // Jan 9, 2008 at 1:43 pm

    AnchorFree works ok, but the ads are really annoying and I worry they use information about me to target the ads. Maybe they don’t? It also seemed to screw with my Mac’s startup sequence so it could display a reminder in Firefox. I’ve always liked hotspotVPN or personal VPN from Witopia.net. They’ve been around the longest.

  • David Bradley // Jan 9, 2008 at 3:53 pm

    Good point Will, perhaps others who have tried this system could let us know what they think. I didn’t see any ads myself but then I’ve got noscript and adblock plus running in Firefox.

    db

  • Aseem Kishore // Jan 11, 2008 at 4:52 am

    This sounds very interesting, I will check it out. Didn’t know you could do this. Thanks.

  • wade // Oct 2, 2008 at 12:52 am

    Looks like a good end-to-end solution.

    Wade

  • David Bradley // Oct 2, 2008 at 8:27 am

    Why thank you Wade. I think it is. I’m afraid I didn’t like the look of the site to which you linked in your comment. This was the most dubious phrase relating to your find free wifi hotspots:

    “Capture the email addresses of your wi-fi enabled customers and send them promotional email to bring them back (on-demand). Click here for our free report – Mobile Marketing 101.”

    So, I’m afraid I removed the link. If you think that was unfair, please let me know why. Perhaps we could review your software here.

  • Richard Roma // Jan 15, 2009 at 6:37 pm

    Do you know of a way to utilize hotspot shield without it taking over the whole computer; restricting it to only work on a designated port?

  • David Bradley // Jan 15, 2009 at 7:59 pm

    That might be possible via your router settings. I presume you mean so that you could use it only for an email client or an FTP client or whatever rather than all connections?

  • Anonymous // Jan 16, 2009 at 11:29 am

    HotSpot Shield is an excellent opensource alternative for implementing VPN protocols; however, the ads are quite cumbersome, hence I recommend that you utilize HotSpot shield in conjunction with Opera which removes all the ads. This service can also be utilized in order to bypass ISP Throttling and Shaping; pending upon a few minor adjustments :) Although it is useful it is not the only solution. Google is your Friend!

  • David Bradley // Jan 16, 2009 at 11:34 am

    I use NoScript with Firefox, so the ads are essentially invisible in that browser too. As to the throttling and shaping issues, good point, you do get around those, but Hotspot essentially gives you 1 Mbp/s downloads (tested using speedtest.net while tunneling from the UK) and has a 1 Gb per month download limit, which you will use up quickly if watching Hulu.com or downloading weekly Linux distros via a torrent network, for instance,

  • David Bradley // Jan 16, 2009 at 4:10 pm

    There’s a Greasemonkey script for removing the Anchorfree ads while running Hotspot Shield – http://userscripts.org/scripts/review/11070

  • Naveed Ahmad // Jan 24, 2009 at 6:05 pm

    Hay Richard.. i m using hotspot shield in the same way almost as u want. just edit routing table n add a persistent route for ur specific IP while delete the 0.0.0.0 route having hotspot shield given gateway. If u r not following, u can contact me at naveed004@hotmail.com

  • abdulla // Jan 24, 2009 at 6:45 pm

    yeha.. i use it use it with opera and no probs comes what so ever. once a while the remote sever couldnt handle message comes but besides that its fine. the best is thing i like about it is that it can be disconnected at so ease without effecting your surfing but i am also worried about my own privacy with the anchorfree if no one can see me but they can right!! what they log my clicks and passwords.. i cant say how reliable and safe it is but it is very easy to use. and is there any chance that my isp provider would know about it.. ?? cause where i stay freedom of press is not very appreciated so many sites get blocked here..

  • Naveed Ahmad // Jan 27, 2009 at 5:23 am

    Hi Richard,

    First you should understand that Hotspot Shield is basically a virtual private network (VPN) that is changing the route of your internet traffic through its network. So, after connecting through Hotspot VPN, web browsing or any type of application’s traffic like MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, etc. is being routed through its network. It’s not a matter of ports. Its all about the route being changed.

    For more information on how to control Hotspot Shield Routing check out this post.

    Naveed

    naved004 on Hotmail

  • jeffrey lim // Feb 7, 2009 at 6:30 am

    Hi,

    I read the comments above about hotspot shield with interest.
    I have downloaded hotspot shield but was blocked by the local ISP when I tried to launch it.
    How do I bypass this?

  • David Bradley // Feb 7, 2009 at 8:48 am

    What were the symptoms that indicated your ISP had blocked Hotspot?

  • David Bradley // Feb 17, 2009 at 6:24 pm

    I am no longer recommending Hotspot Shield, it is acting as serious spyware now, pushing tracking cookies and serving ads, as well as forcing installation of unwanted services.

  • Mathew // Apr 6, 2009 at 2:45 pm

    Hi,

    I’m currently using Hotspot Shield, and was wondering if it’s safe to use sites like amazon.com and ebay.com which involve creditcard transactions through this VPN?

    Thanks.

  • David Bradley // Apr 6, 2009 at 3:47 pm

    I no longer recommend Anchorfree Hotspot Shield. Find an alternative.

  • abuyi // Apr 6, 2009 at 8:35 pm

    yes david i too kinda notice weird behavior in hotspot. i kept strict setting on zonealarm on that apps.. the new version tries to connect to the net quietly to send data.. hotspot updates itself accordingly and now have ads even in opera.
    i dont trust that apps any one knows a better alternative,

  • David Bradley // Apr 6, 2009 at 10:25 pm

    AlwaysVPN is an alternative, but I’ve not tested it properly and cannot vouch for its security etc.

  • Doug // Apr 16, 2009 at 8:28 am

    witopia is good. very fast and no ads or bandwidth limits. http://www.witopia.net

  • David Bradley // Apr 18, 2009 at 2:51 pm

    Witopia is not free.

  • abuyi // Apr 18, 2009 at 9:10 pm

    witopia is not free.. i found another alternative which is free and does not alter my browser layout and no ads and its open source code.. but the prob is sometime youtube and other streaming video site dosnt work with it.. video jus dosn load.. you hav to register ur free user name and password to use

    here you guy test it out and l;et me kno, im currently usin it and don find any prbs with it yet

    openvpn GUI v10.3

  • oncebitten // Oct 17, 2009 at 12:37 pm

    Well hotspot shield has fallen from it’s pedestal, as any free VPN service will that doesn’t have a at least one paying option to support it’s overheads of server maintenance and bandwidth. Another VPN service that has been tried and have issued a large yellow question mark is new kid in the block “itshidden.com” I mean thanks for the free service, however my firewall picked up unnecessary uploading at times when i wasn’t actively browsing. The destination URLs the service was phoning home to were not at all what I would deem “trusted third parties”. db(dot)gayforit(dot)c om and a www01 derivitive of the same url made me wonder if these generous service providers weren’t somehow streaming me live to a bar in Amsterdam or even worse, key logging my computer and harvesting my contacts.

    If it’s free, proceed with caution and enjoy

  • uae hotspotter // Oct 24, 2009 at 1:34 am

    ok i dont really know what ive done .. but i dont have the bandwith limit with hotspot sheild … it just let me use teh service with no limit … i just installed the 1st old version … i guess the band with tracking is only for the new versions

  • David Bradley // Oct 24, 2009 at 9:45 am

    I’m not sure how you’re accessing their system if you’re using an older version, they force upgrades as far as i can tell…

  • no // Nov 6, 2009 at 7:29 am

    it worked fine for about 5 minutes and then bombarded me with ads and kept redirecting every page I tried to view back to some crappy search page. this is JUNK!!!!

Leave a Comment






← →