They do not offer the complete width of protection that VPNs do since your browser is just protected by a proxy. But if all you would like to do is see the U.S. Netflix catalogue abroad or shield your browsing on a public Wifi network, then an encrypted proxy should function just fine.

To begin on Firefox, download and install the addon from the website of Mozilla. Once that is done, a reddish Hotspot Shield symbol should appear to the right of the address bar in your browser toolbar.

Simply click on it, select your virtual place and throw the on-off slider. The Hotspot Shield symbol should turn green once that is done.

Although TunnelBear is my goto VPN right now, I used to make use of Hotspot Shield a great deal. Formerly, the free offering of Hotspot Shield didn’t use browser addons and injected advertisements on top of every browser tab when you landed on a fresh webpage. It was free, so it is amazing to see Hotspot Shield backing away from that, but all those advertising actually took a toll on functionality.