Hotspot Shield Sesawe is a free (but commercial) VPN solution available only for Microsoft Windows, which can be used to access the Internet through a secure tunnel (over your normal, censored Internet connection) and so provides a very easy and secure tool to bypass Internet censorship.
To use it, first, download the software from the Sesawe website : Select the "Hotspot Shield Sesawe" link from the "Tools" section on the right, then click on download and save the file on your Desktop, for example. The filesize is about 3MB, so on a slow dialup connection the download can take 10-15 minutes. If the download is blocked, write a email to english AT sesawe DOT net and we will provide you an alternative download link or send you the file directly as an email attachment.
After a successful download, locate the downloaded file on your Desktop and start the installation with a double click :
You will see a welcome screen, where you have to click on "next" :
On the next screen you have to accept the License Agreement with a click on "I Agree" :
Now you see a window informing you about additional software which can be installed optionally. Click on "Next >" again.
On the next screen you can uncheck the option to install the optional Hotspot Shield Community Toolbar. The Toolbar is not needed to use the Hotspot Shield VPN.
You can now choose the location on your hard drive where Hotspot Shield should be installed to. In most cases you can leave the default values unchanged and proceed with a click on "Install".
You may get several warnings from Windows telling you that the software didn’t pass the Windows Logo Testing and it would be better to stop the installation. This is a common error message for every driver installation where the creator of the software didn’t want to spend a lot of time and money for the official certification from Microsoft. You can safely proceed by clicking on "Continue Anyway".
Afterwards you see a "Installation Complete" screen where you have to click on "Next >" again.
On the last screen of the installation routine you can select or deselect the option to launch Hotspot Shield directly after a click on "Finish".
You can now delete the setup file (like "HSS-1.12-install-sesawe-216-conduit.exe") on your Desktop. To start the Hotspot Shield software manually click on the "Hotspot Shield Launch" icon on your Desktop :
After launching Hotspot Shield a browser window with a status page is opened where you can see the different stages of the connection, like "Authentication" or "Checking for updates". When you see a green "Connected" everything is fine and you will be redirected to a blank page so you can start surfing on websites or using every other software (Instant Messenger, eMail, Games and so on) without any further configuration to access the Internet uncensored.
To reach the status page again, make a right click on the shield icon in your tasklist and select "Properties".
As long as you see a green shield in the taskbar, you are connected to the VPN and surfing over the secure tunnel. To quit make a right click on the icon and choose "Exit". Now you can continue surfing on your normal (filtered) Internet connection.
Problems If you have more questions or connection problems please refer to the Hotspot Shield FAQ on sesawe.net or use the support form to ask our support team.
To make it easier to help, you can include following information in your message : The status message you see when you make a right click on the icon in the tasbar and select "Properties" The log file of Hotspot Shield, which you can reach by making a right click on the Hotspot Shield icon in the taskbar, select "Properties", on the status page select "Report a connection problem" and than "Show log file".
