Hotspot Shield VPN

About Hotspot Shield VPN

The free build of this client caps throughput, limits how much traffic passes in a day and offers a single location. This package removes all three, which turns it from a demonstration into something usable as a daily connection. The full server list is selectable, transfer is unmetered, and the connection holds rather than dropping once a quota is reached.

Connecting is a single button. The client picks the fastest available server automatically, or a specific country and city can be chosen from the list, and the tunnel comes up in a few seconds. Once connected, traffic leaves through the selected location, which is the point on a public network where anyone on the same access point can otherwise see far more than they should.

The routing controls are what make it liveable rather than an all or nothing switch. Split tunnelling routes chosen applications through the tunnel and leaves the rest on the direct connection, which keeps a local printer, a file share or a latency sensitive application working normally. The kill switch blocks all traffic if the tunnel drops, so nothing leaks out through the ordinary connection during a reconnect.

Around that sit the ordinary conveniences: automatic connection on untrusted networks, launch at startup, a protocol selector for situations where one transport is blocked and another is not, and a connection log showing session duration and transfer volume. The interface stays deliberately small, since almost nobody wants to spend time in a VPN client.

What is included in this build

• Full server list across a wide range of countries and cities
• Unmetered transfer with no daily traffic cap or throughput limit
• Automatic selection of the fastest available server
• Split tunnelling routing chosen applications outside the tunnel
• Kill switch blocking all traffic if the tunnel drops unexpectedly
• Automatic connection when joining an untrusted network
• Protocol selector for networks where one transport is blocked
• Connection log showing session duration and transfer volume

Changed in version 12.15.1

• Faster tunnel establishment on first connect
• Additional server locations added to the list
• Improved reconnection behaviour after a network change
• Split tunnelling rules now survive an application update
• Reduced idle memory footprint

Installation walkthrough

These steps assume a clean machine. If a previous release of the same application is present, deal with that first, since an overlapping install is the most common cause of a setup that stops halfway.

1. Disconnect any other VPN client and disable its adapter before installing.
2. Extract the archive and run the installer as administrator.
3. Allow the network adapter driver to install when the system prompts.
4. Reboot once so the adapter registers correctly with the network stack.
5. Enable the kill switch and configure split tunnelling before relying on the connection.

System requirements and file details

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