Hey...many of you have successfully downloaded the Hotspot Shield application that I recommended yesterday and are happily enjoying previously forbidden web stuff but listener Ross reported getting some trojans when he tried to download. My response to that and other questions after the jump...

If anyone has encountered problems downloading Hotspot Shield (link in my previous post), my apologies. I test out every recommended site a couple times before mentioning it on the DL. I downloaded the application at home a few days ago and everything was okay (still is, and I have pretty good anti-virus software), so I don't know why Ross got trojans.

In fact, Hotspot Shield was originally created to protect web surfers who were using public hot spots to go online. The mask IP address the app gives you is for protecting your privacy while using notoriously weak security hot spot connections. The U.S. IP address is just an added bonus for us Canadians and was not the original intent of the app. So I don't really think that the company itself would have inserted trojans.

Some people have asked about other operating systems like Linux and Ubuntu. I don't think Hotspot Shield works on those. The site lists Mac and PC and it works on Explorer, Firefox, Safari etc.

Another person asked about the IP's download limit. From what I can tell, every time you relaunch HSS from your desktop you are assigned a new/different IP address. As for bandwidth, the HSS pays for itself with ads in the form of a thin banner across the top of your browser page that you can click off every time it pops up.

As for other countries, I am not aware of a shield that can, say, get you into the UK, but listener Aram suggests something called www.rocketunblock.com. I haven't tried it yet.