Self Proxy

Scenario: You want your WhatsApp connection to run from your own computer, on your own internet line, instead of the Spun-managed connection. Self Proxy is optional: you can choose it while connecting, or switch to it at any time later.

What it is

Spun keeps your WhatsApp Web session alive on a server. The session has to reach WhatsApp from some internet address. By default that is a Spun connection in your country or, where there is none, a temporary connection from a residential address in your country.

Self Proxy puts that address under your control. A tiny background service runs on one of your Windows or Mac computers, and your WhatsApp Web session is routed through your own internet connection. WhatsApp then sees the same home IP address your phone and laptop use every day. Media (photos, videos, voice notes, documents) does not go through your computer: it travels between Spun's WhatsApp gateway and WhatsApp directly.

Who needs it

Nobody has to. A new connection goes through a Spun-managed connection in the country you confirm, with nothing to install (see How your WhatsApp connects). Choose Self Proxy when you would rather the connection run from a computer you control:

• While connecting: under the QR code, choose Set that up instead, or Use my computer on the card shown with a temporary connection. If Spun cannot connect from your country yet, the connect screen offers Use my computer, which is Self Proxy.
• Later: admins on the managed connection see a Run your connection from your computer card in Settings → WhatsApp → Health. Press Set it up. A few days after your first connection, the account owner may also get one email with the download link.

Your current connection stays active while you install. Switching to your computer with Switch now pauses the WhatsApp connection for about a minute and, rarely, you may need to scan the code again. From a Spun connection the switch may still show Coming soon; from a temporary connection it is available now.

The move is one way. Once you are on Self Proxy, Spun never moves you back to the managed connection by itself, there is no button for moving back, and WhatsApp never falls back to a Spun datacenter address. Contact support if you need to move back.

Use home Wi-Fi

Use any home Wi-Fi rather than a shared office network. Accounts can get flagged by WhatsApp after connecting to Wi-Fi shared with flagged accounts.

Requirements

• A Windows 10 or 11 computer, or a Mac running a recent macOS (the download page states the minimum version, see Setting it up on a Mac). Linux is not supported.
• The computer must stay powered on and connected to the internet. If it sleeps or goes offline, the proxy goes offline with it.
• A stable home or office broadband connection.
• You must be an account admin to set it up.

Don't use a laptop that travels

The whole benefit comes from a consistent IP address. A machine that moves between networks defeats the purpose.

Setup

1. In Spun, go to Settings → WhatsApp → Health.
2. Scroll to the Self Proxy card. On the Spun-managed connection, press Set it up on the Run your connection from your computer card instead.
3. Click Download installer.
4. On the Windows computer, double-click the downloaded SpunProxySetup file. Nothing to extract - it's a single installer, digitally signed by Spun Life LLC, so Windows can verify it came from us.
5. Click Yes on the Windows admin (UAC) prompt.
6. Wait 1-2 minutes. The card updates automatically once the computer connects.

Someone else's computer?

You don't have to be at the machine yourself: use Email installer link on the Self Proxy card to send a setup page to the person whose computer will run the proxy. The emailed page walks them through the same three steps.

Older downloads (ZIP + .bat)

Before the signed installer, setup shipped as SpunHomePresence-Setup.zip: extract the ZIP, double-click SpunHomePresence-Setup.bat, and accept the admin prompt. If Windows Security asks whether to send that file to Microsoft for analysis, choose "Don't send" and continue. A ZIP download today just means the signed installer wasn't available for your account yet - the steps above apply once it is.

When it's done, the card shows Self Proxy - Ready with a green dot, plus your public IP, the OS, service uptime, and the time of the last heartbeat.

Setting it up on a Mac

Every place that offers the Windows installer also offers Download for Mac when the Mac installer is available, and the page puts the button for the computer you are reading this on first.

1. In Spun, go to Settings → WhatsApp → Health, scroll to the Self Proxy card, and click Download for Mac.

2. On the Mac, double-click the downloaded SpunProxySetup .pkg. It is signed by Spun Life LLC and notarized by Apple, so macOS can verify it came from us. Follow the prompts and enter your Mac password when asked.

3. Come back to Spun. The card updates on its own once the Mac connects.

4. If the page still says the computer is not connected once the installer has finished, open Terminal and paste the sudo enroll line shown on that same page, using the install code printed beside it. It looks like this, with your own code in place of the last word:

   sudo "/Library/Application Support/SpunHomePresence/spun-proxy-agent" enroll YOUR-CODE

Keep the Mac awake

A sleeping Mac takes your WhatsApp offline exactly like a switched-off Windows PC. Open System Settings → Lock Screen and set the Mac never to sleep while it is plugged in.

If your Mac runs Microsoft Defender

Most Macs don't, and this section doesn't apply to them. Macs managed by an employer, and Macs with the Microsoft Defender app from a Microsoft 365 subscription, sometimes quarantine the proxy engine inside the Spun Self Proxy installer, a program called gost. Defender labels it "HackTool:MacOS/Gost" because proxy software can be misused. The copy inside Spun Self Proxy is built by Spun, signed by Spun Life LLC, checked by Apple, and only ever connects to Spun's own relay.

If this happened, your computer shows Offline in Spun until the file is back.

• Microsoft Defender app on a personal Mac: open Microsoft Defender, go to Protection history, find the Gost entry, choose Restore, then Allow. Then run the Spun Self Proxy installer again.
• Work-managed Mac: you can't change this yourself. Ask your IT team to exclude the folder /Library/Application Support/SpunHomePresence/ from Defender, then run the installer again.

Spun has asked Microsoft to correct this detection. If your IT team wants details, point them to this page.

After setup

The first time a computer connects, a manager is asked to confirm your protected country: the country you normally use WhatsApp from on your phone. It takes one click, and Spun routes WhatsApp through the computer only after it is confirmed. Then scan the QR code so the session runs on your home IP.

Protected country

Your account has one protected country. A backup computer in another country will not take over, so keep at least one approved backup inside the protected country. A manager can change the protected country later from the Self Proxy card.

If the active computer suddenly appears outside the protected country, for example because a VPN was switched on, Spun pauses WhatsApp instead of connecting from the wrong place. The screen says WhatsApp is paused. There is nothing to scan and nothing to replace, your number and messages are safe, and WhatsApp resumes on its own once the computer is back in the protected country. Turn off the VPN or proxy on that computer.

Status meanings

Status	Meaning	What to do
🟢 Ready	Computer is connected and serving traffic	Nothing
🟡 Tunnel down	The computer is online but its tunnel to Spun is not answering	Restart the Spun Proxy service on that computer, or check that its firewall allows the connection. Reloading the channel will not fix this
🟡 Unreachable	Heartbeat stopped - the machine may be asleep or the service stopped	Wake the computer, check the SpunProxy service
🔴 Offline	No connection from the computer at all	Power it on and confirm SpunProxy is running

The connection banner at the top of the inbox also shows a Self Proxy badge, and warns you when every configured computer is offline.

Managing computers

• Test Connection - runs a live check and reports latency.
• Switch Computer - disconnects the current machine and downloads a fresh installer for another one.
• Re-download - grabs the installer again for the same machine.
• Disconnect - removes the proxy entirely. You'll need to re-run setup to bring it back.

You can pair more than one computer. With several machines configured, the connection survives any single one going offline.

Backup proxy computers

A backup proxy computer is a second Windows or Mac computer enrolled on the same account and left on standby. One enrolled computer is the active relay at any moment; the rest stand by, so the connection survives any single machine going offline.

Adding one

• Run the installer on the second machine yourself, exactly as in the Setup steps above.
• Or use Email installer link on the Self Proxy card, so the person who owns that computer installs it themselves.

Either way, a newly enrolled machine arrives as a join request: account managers get a notification and an email reading "Office PC" wants to join as a backup proxy computer, naming the computer. A manager approves it as a failover backup, or removes it, from Settings → WhatsApp → Self Proxy. A machine that is reinstalled needs approving again.

What happens on failover

• If the active computer goes quiet, Spun promotes a standby - but only one that has checked in within the last ninety seconds. A machine that cannot prove it is alive is not a candidate, because promoting a dark machine would only produce a second outage.
• A cooldown applies after a failover, so a flapping connection cannot ping-pong your WhatsApp session between machines.
• You can promote a specific computer by hand when you know something the automation does not, such as which office is about to lose power.
• Standbys have a priority order you can drag to reorder. A backup computer outside your protected country will not take over.

What it is not

• Not a country picker. You cannot select a region you are not in. Self Proxy exits from wherever the computer physically is, so a backup machine gives you redundancy, not a new location.
• Windows 10 and 11, or a Mac. Linux cannot act as a backup computer.
• The machine has to stay on and online. A standby that sleeps at six in the evening is not a standby.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
Card stays on "Waiting for your computer to connect"	Confirm the installer actually ran and you accepted the admin prompt; click Refresh
Status shows Unreachable	Open Windows Services, find SpunProxy, and make sure it's running
Status flips between Ready and Offline	The computer is probably sleeping - disable sleep and hibernation in Windows power settings
Still disconnecting after setup	Scan the QR code again so the session actually moves onto your home IP
Setup blocked by antivirus	Allow the SpunProxy service, then re-run the installer
"Another program is using the port Spun needs"	Restart the Spun Proxy service; it picks a free port on its own
"WhatsApp is paused"	The computer appears outside your protected country. Turn off the VPN or proxy on it

Sharing your connection

A Self Proxy computer can serve more than one Spun account. The person who owns the computer is the owner; anyone routed through it is a consumer. This is how a business gives a second number, a colleague, or a branch office a stable connection without buying another machine.

Both halves live on the Self Proxy card in Settings → WhatsApp → Health.

Sharing yours with someone else

You need to be an account manager, and you need a Self Proxy computer that is already set up and connected. There is nothing to share until then.

1. Open the Shared with section on the Self Proxy card.
2. Click + Share connection.
3. Set a monthly cap in GB (10 GB by default) and read the consent notice.
4. Click Create invite and send the person the code that appears.

The code starts with hpsh_, is shown only once, works once, and expires after 72 hours. Treat it like a password: whoever holds it can ask to route traffic through your internet connection.

What you are agreeing to

Their WhatsApp traffic uses your internet connection. It stays end-to-end encrypted, so you cannot read it, but heavy use consumes your bandwidth, and if their number is abused it can affect how WhatsApp treats your IP address. Only share with people you trust.

You can have up to 3 shares per account at once, however many computers you run. Invites that are still pending count against that limit, so cancel stale ones to free a slot. A share you have scheduled for revoke releases its slot straight away.

Shares to a linked organization (a parent, child, or sibling account) do not count toward the 3.

Accepting someone's code

1. On the Self Proxy card, click I have a share code.
2. Paste the code and click Next.
3. Read what you are agreeing to, then click Request access.

The owner is asked to approve before anything connects, so access is not instant. Until they approve, the card reads Waiting for the owner to approve, and you can cancel the request from there.

Tell the owner you have sent the request

Share requests and approvals appear inside Spun, not by email. An owner who does not have Spun open will not find out that someone is waiting, so it is worth messaging them directly after you request access.

An account can use one shared connection at a time. To move to a different one, disconnect from the current share first.

Your own numbers approve themselves

Sharing between numbers on the same account, or between linked organizations, skips the approval step and connects straight away. The approval ceremony exists for sharing with people outside your account.

Primary vs backup

Where the shared connection sits depends on whether you already run your own proxy computer.

Your setup	What the share becomes
No proxy computer of your own	Your primary connection - all WhatsApp traffic routes through the owner's computer
One or more of your own computers	A backup - your own machines keep serving traffic, and the share engages automatically only while every one of your computers is offline

A backup share sits on standby and costs you nothing in bandwidth until it is actually needed. Switchover is automatic and takes a few minutes: Spun waits about five minutes of silence before treating a computer as offline, then engages the backup on its next check. When one of your own computers comes back, your traffic returns to it on its own.

Data caps and monitoring

The owner sets a monthly cap per share, 10 GB by default and adjustable between 100 MB and 1 TB. Both sides see the same usage bar on their card, along with 30-day totals, so an approaching limit is never a surprise.

Reaching the cap does not cut you off

The cap is a soft limit: it is there to make heavy use visible, not to enforce a ceiling. Crossing it does not throttle or disconnect anything, and traffic keeps flowing normally. Watch the usage bar if you need to stay under it - it pins at 100% once the cap is passed. Usage resets on the 1st of each calendar month.

The owner can change a cap at any time with Edit cap on the share row.

Ending a share

The owner ends a share with Revoke and picks one of two modes:

• Schedule revoke (the default) - access continues for 24 hours, giving the other side time to arrange another connection. 24 hours is also the minimum: there is no shorter scheduled delay, so use an immediate revoke if you need access to stop sooner.
• Revoke immediately - access stops right away. This is for abuse or genuinely urgent situations.

Revoking a share that has not gone active yet simply cancels it, with no waiting period.

The consumer can leave at any time with Disconnect from shared connection. Reconnecting to an outside owner needs a fresh share code, since the original was single-use.

Things worth knowing

• The owner's computer is a single point of failure. If it sleeps or drops offline, a primary consumer's connection drops with it.
• Sharing does not move you to another country. Traffic exits from wherever the computer physically sits, so a share in another region gives you that region's IP, not a choice of location.
• The owner's computer may need updating. Older proxy installations cannot serve shares; Spun warns you when creating the invite if the machine needs the newer version.

No second screen to scan from?

Self Proxy needs a Windows or Mac computer that stays on, but you do not have to sit at it to scan. If you are on your phone, open the Share to Friend tab on the reconnect screen and press Generate Share Link: open the link on another phone, tablet or computer, enter the passcode shown, and scan the QR that appears there with your WhatsApp phone.

Related

• Connecting WhatsApp - first-time setup and reconnecting
• Settings - where the Self Proxy card lives