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Level 1

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hotspot shield -- uninstall problem

I installed Hotspot Shield which seems widely recommended for wifi security.

Apart from doubts that it really increases your security -- even if channels traffic through a vpn connection, why would I want to route my traffic through a server I know nothing about?? -- there is now an even greater concern: I am not able to uninstall it. I have no idea what this software is doing, where is it installed, which bits are still working and so on.

The situation is this. Hotspot Shield gets installed in the /Applications folder. If user connects to internet, there appears a banner at the top of the browser page. One can click on the banner and create a vpn channel to a remote server.

Uninstall: Hotspot says one has to remove the "/Applications/Hotspot Shield" folder. I did that. But the banner keeps appearing. This banner is code snippet, in javascript, that is inserted at the beginning of EVERY html page that your browser (firefox, safari) retrieves. Both firefox and safari are affected; also, when I switch to another user (under whose account I have never used Hotspot connection), then the banner appears. This seems to imply that Hotspot installation is not contained only in the "/Applications/Hotspot Shield" folder or user preferences, the system folders are affected -- something that is unacceptable.

Hotspot webforum seems closed; I could not post a question there. A google search is useless as regards uninstalling or removing.

Does anyone have experience with this? Any suggestions about how to successfully remove this software?

Thanks, Hanne

--

MB 13, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Aug 12, 2008 4:27 AM

18 replies

nerowolfe

Level 6

13,090 points

Nov 26, 2008 5:21 PM in response to Tim Haigh

Tim Haigh wrote:
the point of a vpn or an ssh connection is that is uses encryption so can be used on an untrusted network to securely connect to other servers.

I do not use any 3rd party security on my mabook pro other than waterroof which is a gui to configure the built in unix firewall ipfw.

I never connect to banks, email etc when using a untrusted wireless hotspot. I vpn or ssh into my server and open a vnc session and then open mail and my webrowser on the server not locally.

I agree and ask myself this question -
We go out of our way at home to encrypt our WiFi, almost to the point of paranoia, and then we walk into a coffee shop where the real hackers all hang out and do business over what is essentially a public speaker system without a second's thought.
I would never use my computer on an open network, whether at home or in the neighborhood bookshop.
If someone has an urgent need to do a bank transaction while drinking latte, they should use a phone company ISP and a network card and not let everyone else in the area see what they are doing.
I must be missing something. Something about there being no free demitasse or whatever.

Message was edited by: nerowolfe

Nov 26, 2008 9:08 PM in response to hannehanne

Hey Buckos,
So I just installed this, realized it was basically useless and tried to uninstall it. Looks like it's out of my system now.

Here's how I did it.
First I made sure to disconnect from the shield at the top right.
http://127.0.0.1:895/config/?action=disconnect seems to be the one.

-still ads in browsers

Trashed the program.

-still ads in browsers

Searched finder with the option of "system files included" for hotspot
Deleted all the things I didn't know. (Or didn't make sense)
Had to enter in username and password for deleting a dynamic library

-still ads in browsers

Ran activity monitor - Searched for kex
Found kextd
Quit process
Force quit

-no ads in browsers

So simple, but sometimes that's the best.

Going to reboot now, make sure it's out of my system.

Edit:
Rebooted, all gone.

Message was edited by: bisrael

Dearon16

Level 1

0 points

Dec 18, 2008 6:08 AM in response to hannehanne

For me, a hotspot shield icon shows up in the top right of my screen, next to spotlight. When Firefox isn't open, the icon is a red shield and the activity monitor says "ajaxserver not responding". When Firefox is open, there's no problem. Even if I quit the process, it comes back. To keep it from coming back, click on the shield icon in the corner and select "quit." You can always start it again by actually opening the application.
After doing this, I checked startup items and it only had HP files. I then searched for "hss" and "hotspot" and it only had the program Hotspot Shield, v. 0.942. Dunno if that helps.

hotspot shield -- uninstall problem