 This 12 p.m. tutorial will teach you how to install Hotspot Shield and use it to circumvent Internet filtering. Hotspot Shield is a program that uses HTTPS to encrypt your Internet session, conceals your real IP address, and helps you access information that may be blocked in the area that you are viewing the Internet from. First of all, we have to get Hotspot Shield. You'll do this by opening a web browser and going to www.hotspotshield.com. On the Hotspot Shield website, there's a brief explanation of the program and a button that says Download the Latest Version. It is important to note that Hotspot Shield works on both Windows and Mac operating systems, so depending on the kind of operating system you are using, the Hotspot Shield website will give you the correct version of the program to download. Now, click Download the Latest Version and save it. Now, go to where you saved it and double-click the installation icon. Click Run. Now, click the Download button in order to download the Hotspot Shield installer. Then, we wait for the download to finish. Once the download is finished, Hotspot Shield will automatically start the installation for you. Here, you'll choose the language you want to use with Hotspot Shield. Click Next. Agree to the license agreement. Read this information about additional software that Hotspot Shield can install on your computer and then click Next. I don't like cluttering up my web browser with toolbars, so I'm going to uncheck the box and then click Next. There are a couple options on this page. The only one that really matters is the one that says Fix Page Not Found Errors. Leave that checked and then click Next again. Here, you choose where you want to install the software. I'm going to let it install to the path you see here. Once it finishes installing, click the Next button. Now, Hotspot Shield offers you a few more helpful tips and programs. Because this falls outside the scope of this tutorial, I'm going to uncheck the box and click Next. But feel free to download and install anything you feel you might want or need. Leave both of these boxes checked and click Finish. The program will open up a web browser and immediately start connecting to the service. Once it says Connected, you will be taken to the default Hotspot Shield web page where you will see news and where you can utilize the Hotspot Shield Private Search function. I'd like to point out the little green shield icon in the lower right hand corner of your screen. This icon means that the Hotspot Shield service is running on your computer. If you are not connected to the service, this icon will be red. It will be yellow when you are connecting and green when you have reconnected to the service. You can right-click on the icon in order to access options for the Hotspot Shield service. While the service is on, all your open web browsers will function using the Hotspot Shield HTTPS encryption. So you can feel free to open and close your web browsers as you see fit. If you want to stop using the service, simply click Disconnect or off. And then click Disconnect. You'll immediately have the option to start the service again. If you don't want to do that, just go to a different website or close the browser. Now you know how to use Hotspot Shield.