Hotspot Shield Split Tunneling

[Walda Caesar]

Thisis the process that allows a user to access a public network while still being connected to a VPN and its functionality. A public network could be a local area network, the internet or a wide area network.

Split tunneling is useful for providing increased network speeds and a boost in the flow of traffic - Instead of all the virtual network traffic flowing through one tunnel or path, the public aspects can be split out thus reducing the strain on the main network. For example, an employee might be accessing their companies network via a VPN - Using a split tunnel, they will be able to access the internet using their home broadband connection, and access their business files using the VPN network.

Note that the above tests only serve as a general guide as to what you might see when using the service. The random nature of the internet and the many factors that can affect speed mean that you may see very different results.

The mobile app is similar in design to the desktop client, but has just one changable option (switching protocols). This is a positive in the sense that the app just works with no configuration required. But advanced users may miss the ability to tailor the VPN.

Hotspot Shield supports split tunneling via a feature it calls Smart VPN. It enables you to exclude certain apps and websites from the VPN tunnel. You simply need to enable the feature and add the apps or websites you want to go through your regular ISP connection. This feature is only available on Windows and Android.

Hotspot Shield has also recently improved its privacy policy and claims to be a zero-logs provider (more on that in the next section). The service has a couple of other features beneficial to torrenters, including a kill switch (now available in all versions of the app) and DNS leak protection.

Multihop VPN servers route your connection through two cascaded VPN servers. This adds a second layer of encryption to your traffic. The extra server or hop makes you significantly more difficult to track and identify. Hopefully this will come to Hotspot Shield in the future.

If the provider ever does receive a warrant or a gag order, it can take down the warrant canary, to indirectly signal to their user base that the service has been compromised, without violating the gag order.

Hotspot Shield was originally the flagship product of AnchorFree, a Switzerland-based company. However, in 2019, it became part of a new company, Pango, which was later acquired by Aura, a US-based company.

The US is a member of the Five Eyes alliance, which may be discouraging to users particularly wary of international intelligence collection. That said, this is only an issue if the VPN keeps logs.

However, Hotspot Shield has been cleaning up its privacy policy, slowly but steadily. In a past review of the service, I found the company still logged user IP addresses for the duration of the session, but then deleted them. Now, the company claims that there is no logging of IP addresses at all, making it a true no-logs provider, a big plus for privacy in general.

After putting Hotspot Shield through some serious testing, would I recommend this service? In short, for most people, yes. The most privacy-conscious users might want to look for a non-US based VPN but for most users Hotspot Shield is a very strong contender.

Although Hotspot Shield has impressed me, it still has a couple of downsides including a lack of anonymous payment options and a relatively limited settings menu. Thankfully, if those are deal-breakers for you, you have some great alternatives to consider.

I have found that running HSS and then using a corporate VPN only works if the current ISP allows corporate VPN (IKE,PPTP,etc). HSS connects without issue so that makes me think that not all traffic is being protected by HSS.

Hotspot Shield is a VPN company based out of Redwood City, California. It started in 2008 and at last count, they had over 1,800 servers offering several thousand different IP addresses. Hotspot Shield servers are distributed in over 80 countries in different regions throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Africa.

According to its privacy policy, Hotspot Shield collects standard data and metrics like diagnostic information, device and app versions, and connection timestamps. It may also request you rate its services. Your response will be logged, but in an anonymized format.

Split tunneling lets you route some traffic through your ISP and some through the VPN. Think of it as using VPN on some apps on your computer or smartphone, and using the regular internet on others. For instance, you can simultaneously use your VPN to watch Netflix shows abroad and browse local news articles without a VPN.

How did we use it? We commute to work daily, and so we need local traffic and weather services. We also like to browse the internet while on our commute. On our Androids and iPhones, we set Smart VPN to allow our traffic and weather apps to bypass the VPN, while all other apps continue to get VPN access. That way, we can access local traffic and weather updates (no VPN) and protect our browsing and change our IP address (with VPN) at the same time.

You could take a government highway to get to your safe house in the woods, but then security cameras might have recorded you. Or you could take back roads the whole way, but it might take you days. This is the kind of trade-off you often face between security and performance.

As you will see in our Hotspot Shield speed test results below, there is some truth to these claims. Hydra, and by extension, Hotspot Shield, indeed performed incredibly fast. And when it comes to data security, Hydra did prevent our IP address from leaking out.

In addition to Hydra, Hotspot Shield offers the WireGuard protocol, which is a lighter and faster alternative to OpenVPN. Users can choose between Hydra and WireGuard, and although both protocols are good, WireGuard is more widely implemented in the VPN industry, so chances are, it will work in more situations.

Free VPNs from reputable companies like Hotspot Shield, however, can prove useful for internet users on a budget. And surprisingly, the free version is quite capable. It no longer has a speed limit, so you can enjoy internet speeds up to 1 Gbps. If your internet is fast, you may even be able to stream or download with Hotspot Shield Basic (free).

For all our internet speed tests, we use a Macbook Pro running macOS X Catalina as well as a Lenovo Thinkpad running Windows 10. For better stability, we connect our laptops to our router via an Ethernet cable.

We did another test, this time comparing the speed of VPNs, and Hotspot Shield performed even better in the download speed category. In fact, Hotspot Shield recorded the smallest percentage of download speed loss at just three-percent.

Next, we tested the difference in upload speeds with and without the Hotspot Shield Premium. In this case, the Windows connection performed a little worse with a decrease of 26 percent compared to only 0.2 percent on Mac.

We used a DNS leak test tool to see if Hotspot Shield had any DNS leaks. And the result? Well, the IP address that the leak test tool detected was from the Bahamas, and we were nowhere near there when we performed the tests. That means that Hotspot Shield successfully shielded our IP address from DNS leaks.

Hotspot Shield has native apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Linux devices as well as a browser extension for Chrome. On smart TVs, Hotspot Shield is available for Fire TVs and Android TVs. However, for routers, you need to configure Hotspot Shield manually.

Both have kill switches and split tunneling, which are essential security features. You should be able to stream from Netflix and torrent files with both VPNs. NordVPN gives you the same shared IP address each time (unless you want to pay extra for a dedicated IP address), while Hotspot Shield will give you a dynamic IP address that changes every time you connect. We prefer how Hotspot Shield rotates its IP addresses regularly, as it makes it harder for hackers to track you.

Outside of their free trial, Hotspot Shield offers two plans: a monthly and an annual subscription. I wish Hotspot Shield offered more plan options, as other VPNs usually have a monthly, yearly and a two- or three-year subscription.

Hotspot Shield comes with two split tunneling features: split tunneling apps and split tunneling websites. This allows users to pick which apps or services they want to route via a protected VPN connection and which ones they want to run through their regular ISP.

Hotspot Shield also allows for 10 simultaneous device connections, letting users protect multiple devices through a secured VPN connection. This is a subtle but important feature which will benefit users who use multiple laptops, computers, tablets or smartphones.

Having 10 allowed connections is plenty, considering other VPNs normally provide only 6-8 connections. For example, NordVPN and CyberGhost VPN only allow six and seven simultaneous device connections, respectively.

For speed tests, Hotspot Shield performed really well for downloads as it recorded only a 19.45% drop in speed compared to my ISP. If your type of workflow involves downloading a ton of big files, Hotspot Shield can be a good pick.

This is an area for improvement for Hotspot Shield as DNS leak protection should ideally be running upon setup, especially for less tech-savvy users who might blindly trust the VPN to not leak their data.

If security is your top concern, NordVPN should be on top of your list. It offers a strong portfolio of third-party testing, a variety of security-focused features and a healthy server network. It also offers fast performance and a well-designed desktop application.

For users looking for an unlimited free VPN, ProtonVPN is one of the best. Its free version provides users with unlimited data and zero ads. Through its free tier, you get access to servers from five countries on one device. It also operates on data-friendly Swiss laws that provide an additional layer of security for your data.

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