Hotspot Shields

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Level 1

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Hotspot Shields

Hi there
I have some issues with Hotspot Shields, a vpn free program that just don't want to be unistalled from my Mac. Here( http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1660309&start=15&tstart=0) there is an outdated post about that, and I followed those instructions (specially bisrael's in page 2), but kextd process still worked.
Anyone has news about that? I mean, anyone can give me a successful way to uninstall this -I have to call it- malware?
(and if there are psychologists, why I keep installing programs before checking here?)

Mac book, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Dec 15, 2010 3:49 AM

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Answer 1

roam

Level 6

13,631 points

Dec 15, 2010 4:15 AM in response to Fra9001

Hi

Hot spot shield has its own uninstaller. Be disconnected from HSS and click on the installer package again but choose Uninstall.

From memory you will need to log out/in or maybe restart, (one or the other) to unload its kernel too.

{edited}

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Answer 2

Fra9001 Author

Level 1

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Dec 15, 2010 1:03 PM in response to roam

roam wrote:
Hi

Hot spot shield has its own uninstaller. Be disconnected from HSS and click on the installer package again but choose Uninstall.

From memory you will need to log out/in or maybe restart, (one or the other) to unload its kernel too.

{edited}

Did it. Twice. But his kernel is (are? maybe) still running. And my poor Mac is really slow, like he'd never been.
But the advertising banners disappeared (to see what I'm talking you have to refer to the other post I linked).

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Answer 3

roam

Level 6

13,631 points

Dec 15, 2010 3:41 PM in response to Fra9001

If you are wondering if the kernel is still running, you can check.

In Terminal the command

kextstat | grep -v apple

will show you if the hotspot shield kernel is running.
From what you have done, and restarted it should be unloaded.

I'd say your slowdown has another cause.

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Answer 4

Fra9001 Author

Level 1

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Dec 15, 2010 11:00 PM in response to roam

It says

+Index Refs Address Size Wired Name (Version) <Linked Against>+
+92 0 0x924000 0x4000 0x3000 com.Cycling74.driver.Soundflower (1.3.1) <86 85 8 5 4 3 1>+

And in Activity Monitor (I have it in Italian, I don't know the proper english name) the kextd process can't be stopped.

I forgot to say thank you btw

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Answer 5

roam

Level 6

13,631 points

Dec 15, 2010 11:55 PM in response to Fra9001

That's good. It confirms Hotspot Shield is not installed or running on your computer.

It is normal to have kextd running. It is an Apple installed kernel. It is not the result of your experiment with Hotspot shield.

All we really know is your system is running slowing, possibly because of something you installed, but we can rule out HSS. Excluding that, leaves almost everything else as a possibility.

We all like to install things and try them out, but here is a tip. Make a cloned backup of your Mac before you tinker, so that if the adventure comes to grief or in any way slows down or disables your machine, then being able to rely on the clone copy, will revert it to how it was before you changed it. I do this and twice it has saved the day.

This requires hardware, i.e, an external hard drive at some cost, but the cloning software is free or inexpensive. Carbon copy cloner and SuperDuper! are two very good applications for this purpose.

So re-evaluate your problem .
The cause of your slow computer may be something you installed recently or then again it may simply be that your HD is almost completely full, as that can cause a slowdown also. I think you need to cast a wider net. Think about the problem from a different angle.

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