What can you do with HotSpot Shield?

To secure your internet connection, Hotspot Shield creates a Virtual Private Network (a secure connection, usually abbreviated to VPN) between your computer and the Hotspot Shield developer's website, Anchorfree, based in the USA. This connection makes websites think that you are based in the US.

The major reason why users are flocking to Hotspot Shield is because it allows you to view US websites that are usually restricted to people who don't live there. This is particularly useful for video sites such as Hulu or region-restricted restricted videos on YouTube.

Hotspot Shield now includes malware protection meaning that while using it, you shouldn't get infected by anything that may damage your system.

Is it easy to use?

Everything is done in an extra tab open in your browser, so there's no need to configure anything. A green and red shield in your system tray indicates when Hotspot Shield is or is not connected. The VPN is encrypted with 128 bit SSL encryption so you can surf safely without worrying about others intercepting your data.

Does it work?

Hotspot Shield generally works very well. It is ad-supported, however, and be warned that it tries to install a toolbar, although you can opt out of this. If you've got Expat Shield installed, you'll also need to remove it before installing Hotspot Shield. Bear in mind that surfing with Hotspot Shield is noticeably slower than normal, but it's fine for streaming video from video sites such as Hulu.

If you'd like an app that allows you to access other types of blocked and banned sites, check out the rest of our VPNs and access apps here.

Conclusion

Hotspot Shield is easy to install and a useful way of accessing sites and protecting your privacy.

Download Hotspot Shield 2.88 in Softonic

Features

Ultrasurf is a super lightweight application so there aren't many features to speak of. When launched, the app will show the three status lights with their respective speeds next to them. You can select the one that gives you the best performance.

In the options, you'll find options for manipulating Internet Explorer, which Ultrasurf defaults to, though you can disable this. You can manually specify a port for listening so you can forward that port with your router.

Other than this, Ultrasurf doesn't really have any other features.

Interface

While Ultrasurf's interface is easy to use and comprehend, it looks like an app from 1998. The icons are low resolution and have low color depth. These are the stock icons you can find on a machine running Windows 2000.

Usability

Ultrasurf is easy to use but that's because there aren't many features. While this is good for beginners, the app really suffers from the lack of options and information. For example, there's no indication of where the proxy server you're accessing is from.

Other apps like Hotspot Shield give users much more control and is more transparent about what the program is doing. Ultrasurf is more like an on and off switch. There's no fancy encryption algorhythm to mask your traffic.

This is what the company has to say about Ultrasurf's encryption:

"Encryption is between your computer and Ultrasurf proxy servers. Normal web traffic (http) is not encrypted between Ultrasurf and web servers, while secure web traffic (https) is encrypted from user’s computer to the web server. Ultrasurf relays https traffic without interception."

Conclusion

While Ultrasurf is lightweight and simple to use, there are simply better alternatives out there that provide a more transparent options with more features.

Download UltraSurf 13.01 in Softonic

There are plenty of programs like Hotspot Shield, TunnelBear, and CyberGhost VPN that allow you to browse content that is not available to you locally. Spotflux differentiates itself by touting its privacy and security features.

SpotFlux runs silently in the background and sits in your system tray. There is only an on/off button on the main interface. After it's turned on, you can forget about it. Spotflux is great for browsing on public wifi networks or if you just want to encrypt and secure your connection, say when you're entering sensitive information on a site.

One of the coolest features of Spotflux is its ability to block ads. There are browser extensions that do this, but it's nice to have Spotflux block advertisements system-wide. This also means that you won't be tracked online and it will help save a little bandwidth since you don't have to load heavy flash ads.

Like Hotspot Shield, Spotflux also offers malware and virus protection. This is a nice buffer between you and an infection. It is still recommended that you run an antivirus program alongside though.

If you require a proxy, Spotflux will let you enter in your proxy server manually. This is great for those who are paying for a proxy service, but it unfortunately doesn't provide a built-in proxy like TunnelBear.

Overall, Spotflux is a light weight app that will protect, secure, and make your browsing private.

Download Spotflux 2.9.8 in Softonic

To secure your internet connection, Hotspot Shield Elite creates a Virtual Private Network (a secure connection, usually abbreviated to VPN) between your computer and the Hotspot Shield Elite developer's website, Anchorfree, based in the USA.

Everything is done in an extra tab open in your browser so there's no need to configure anything. A green and red shield in your system tray indicates when Hotspot Shield is and is not connected. The VPN is encrypted with 128 bit SSL encryption so that you can surf safely without worrying about others intercepting your data.

The major reason why users are flocking to Hotspot Shield Elite though is because it allows you to view sites in the USA that are usually restricted to outside users. This is particularly useful for video sites such as Hulu or restricted videos on YouTube. The advantage over the free version is that streaming is much more stable. You can also view your purchase history for Hotspot Shield Elite in your browser.

Hotspot Shield Elite works very well and you don't have to put up with an ad banner at the top of your browser like in the free version. In addition, it tries to install a toolbar at the beginning although you can opt out of this. If you've got Expat Shield installed, you'll also need to remove that first before installing. Also, surfing with Hotspot Shield is noticeably slower than normal but it's fine for streaming video from video sites such as Hulu.

Hotspot Shield now includes malware protection meaning that while using it, you shouldn't get infected by anything that may damage your system.

Hotspot Shield Elite is an easy-to-install and use way of accessing sites that are blocked in your region.

Download Hotspot Shield Elite 2.88 in Softonic

Tor is a toolset that's designed for anyone who wants to improve their safety and security on the Internet. It can help you anonymize web browsing and publishing, instant messaging, and other applications that use the TCP protocol. For business users, it means that confidential exchanges of information can be kept from prying eyes and for more general users, it means that ISPs, keyloggers and other types of malware can't track your activities easily.

It works by bouncing traffic around a distributed network of servers which it calls "onion routers" (hence the logo). The Tor interface allows you to easily toggle it on and off based on when you need to go online anonymously - there's no need to restart your computer when you've done so. If you want, you can also choose from various proxy tunnels based on a world map which displays exactly where each one is located.

To check it's working, you can use the online "Tor detector" to see if you're surfing anonymously or not. Connection can take some time depending on how many users are logged onto the network at any one time but usually its very quick. The Tor onion logo turns from yellow to green in your taskbar when a successful connection has been made.

Tor is simple, well organized and effective tool for anyone worried about security or invasions of privacy online.

Download Tor 2.3.25-5 in Softonic

Stealthy was originally developed to facilitate the dissemination of information during the Arab Spring. Even if your intents aren't quite as revolutionary, it will allow you to visit sites that you normally can't because of your location, like Pandora from outside the US or iPlayer from outside the UK. If certain websites are restricted by your country's government - Twitter or Google, for example - Stealthy might be able to help.

There are a large number of internet proxies out there, but what marks Stealthy out is how user-friendly it is to use. It cuts the technicalities down to a minimum by being a normal add-on installed as usual, and by offering only 3 options. You can generate a US IP address, opt to overcome restrictions in your own country, or even choose a specific country to "pretend" to be from.

Unfortunately, much as we liked the idea, using Stealthy wasn't always a smooth ride. Although pretending to be from the US worked, we couldn't use the option to specify a country and there were moments when Stealthy seriously slowed down browsing and made using the internet a slow and laborious process. When you're using Stealthy, also bear in mind that under certain circumstances, it may be illegal.

Much as we liked the idea, Stealthy didn't live up to expectations in terms of effectiveness.

Download Stealthy 1.1.1 in Softonic

As far as privacy apps go, Cocoon is very, very discreet. Once it is enabled, all you will see is an attractive blue toolbar that doesn’t even look like one. You’ll need a free Cocoon account to use the service. Once you have a username and password, sign into Cocoon and begin to browse. According to the developers, Cocoon will establish “a secure encrypted connection to the Internet”, so that nobody can see who you are or what you are doing.

It’s pretty hard to gauge the accuracy of this claim on a casual basis, but from our testing, it seemed promising. We could access geographically restricted websites, meaning our location was hidden, and we couldn’t log into websites without re-entering our log-in information, meaning we were cookie-free. Cocoon also claims to protect you from viruses and malware you might pick up online.

Cocoon doesn’t stop there. It also allows you to create a throw-away email address – Mailslots – that allow you risk-free sign-ups when a website or service absolutely demands your details. It also has its own history feature and a cookie eraser. All your information is stored “in the cloud”, so whatever you do in Cocoon (bookmarks, notes, etc.), it is also available from wherever you log in.

Bear in mind, however, that using Cocoon does effect lots of settings in Firefox, even after it has been uninstalled. Although the add-on was very useful while we were using it, we had a hard time getting everything back to normal once we were done.

Cocoon is a user-friendly and discreet app that will keep you as safe and private as possible when working online.

Download Cocoon 1.19 in Softonic

McAfee Secure URL Shortener is Firefox extension that reduces URLs very easily and generates them as "http://mcaf.ee." This guarantees the recipient that the link is safe to open.

To generate a link, simply right-click on the page to share and choose 'Shorten With mcaf.ee'. The link will be generated with a banner guaranteeing that the link is safe to open. Of course, there is no 100% guarantee that the link is safe because only those sites that are blacklisted in McAfee's database will be covered but it should protect you from the worst offending sites.

McAfee Secure URL Shortener is a simple extension that provides peace of mind when URL shortening.

Download McAfee Secure URL Shortener 1.6 in Softonic

Download Steganos Internet Anonym 2.2 in Softonic

According to Wikipedia, some people believe these files, usually hidden, are an invasion of privacy as they maintain a record of activity even after users believe they have cleaned their system. Index.dat Analyzer finds these files and lets you delete them.

The interface is pretty simple. Upon startup it's not necessary to do anything, as all the .dat files are automatically displayed. You can browse them and delete any you want by checking them and clicking 'Delete', or choose 'Check all' from the edit menu and get rid of everything.

As there will no doubt be hundreds or thousands of files in the list, you can filter them by text. So, by entering 'jpg' you'll just see all the jpg files (as well as any other files that happen to contain those letters together).

Browsing through the cache can be a real eye-opener to the casual user, as it's pretty amazing just how much stuff is kept within your system files without your knowledge. If you find anything you want, you can easily extract them to the folder of your choice.

While this may seem like a tool for the paranoid, it is another useful weapon for cleaning your system and making Windows run faster. For people worried about privacy, it offers a useful service.

Index.dat Analyzer is a simple and eye-opening piece of cleaning software.

Download Index.dat Analyzer 2.5 in Softonic