Anyone else seeing their network repeatedly change from private to public?

[hsehestedt]

Something that has been bugging me for months, but I simply have not taken time to troubleshoot yet is that PCs on my network keep changing the network from Private to Public. As a result, file sharing gets disabled. I'm just curious to know if this is a widespread problem or just a "me" problem.

This happens seemingly out of the blue. I will connect to a share on another machine just fine. Literally a few min later when I try to do so again I get a little banner at the top of File Explorer kindly letting me know that file sharing is disabled.

 

[PurSpyk!!]

I have been having this on every machine with Windows 11 installed. Been driving me crazy, thought it was something I was doing. The other issue I have been having is networking in File Explorer barely works, it doesn't show all the network computers. I can access them by typing in their IP address in the address bar, so the network is fully functional.

 

[glasskuter]

Hey Texas buddy. I have 3 win11 and one win10 on my network. (one wired 3 wireless) I have not experienced this issue. Private network is persistent on all of them with no sharing issues of any kind. Whether it might make a difference or not, I do not use bluetooth in any form.

 

[dacrone]

you using the stable 24h2 or an insider build?
do you have 2.4 and 5ghz that it is switching between?
you can check reg

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Profiles

find your profile and set "Category" value to "1" for private

otherwise, run Admin PowerShell

Set-NetConnectionProfile -Name "Network Name Here" -NetworkCategory Private

and if need-be, you could set that as a scheduled task to repeat fairly often

 

[hsehestedt]

Hey Texas buddy. I have 3 win11 and one win10 on my network. (one wired 3 wireless) I have not experienced this issue. Private network is persistent on all of them with no sharing issues of any kind. Whether it might make a difference or not, I do not use bluetooth in any form.

Interesting. I'll have to use a process of elimination to troubleshoot. Only difficulty is it is hard to guess when it will happen next. May be days between occurrences.

 

[hsehestedt]

you using the stable 24h2 or an insider build?
do you have 2.4 and 5ghz that it is switching between?

Good question, I should have addressed that. I'm using stable 24H2 (or as stable as it can get ).

Note that this happens also on Ethernet connected machines, but for WiFi I use 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz, with a preference for simultaneous 5GHz and 6GHz bands.

 

[dacrone]

Good question, I should have addressed that. I'm using stable 24H2 (or as stable as it can get ).

Note that this happens also on Ethernet connected machines, but for WiFi I use 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz, with a preference for simultaneous 5GHz and 6GHz bands.

odd that its happening on hardlined pcs.. im not sure offhand for that, but the wifi band switching could be the issue on those pcs

 

[krism]

Mine is private. I am rj45 to router. 11 24H2 current.

 

[BamaInArk]

I do not see this problem here on my systems. I have a mixed environment of wired and wireless connected PCs. However the only file sharing I have is with my 2 NASs. This makes me wonder if it has something to do with the File Sharing going on.
However the one issue I do see is occasionally a connected system will turn off Network Discovery for that particular system. So I have to re-enable it.

 

[spokey]

Has anyone found a fix for this? I also have a hard-wired machine doing it. I don't know if the other machines have the problem. I usually see it from remote desktop from my main (the problem machine) pc when I try to do something from the remote that tries to access the main pc. Usually notice it trying to access a backup share.

 

[Brink]

If you have Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, or Education edition installed, you could use the Local Security Policy like in option eight of the tutorial below to specify Public or Private to prevent it from changing.

Change Network Location to Private, Public, or Domain in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to change the type of network your PC is connected to as a domain, public, or private location for all users in Windows 11. A network location identifies the type of network that a PC is connected to with a network adapter and automatically sets the appropriate...

www.elevenforum.com

 

[spokey]

thanks will give that a try. I should have included this before. It seems to come up with 'unidentified network' when it happens. Think that changes anything?

 

[Brink]

thanks will give that a try. I should have included this before. It seems to come up with 'unidentified network' when it happens. Think that changes anything?

Could, but you also can specify it for "Unidentified Networks" as well.

 

[hsehestedt]

If you have Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, or Education edition installed, you could use the Local Security Policy like in option eight of the tutorial below to specify Public or Private to prevent it from changing.

Change Network Location to Private, Public, or Domain in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to change the type of network your PC is connected to as a domain, public, or private location for all users in Windows 11. A network location identifies the type of network that a PC is connected to with a network adapter and automatically sets the appropriate...

www.elevenforum.com

Doh! Never even thought to try that. Doing so now. Yet another good reason to only run Pro and never Home edition

 

[x509]

Something that has been bugging me for months, but I simply have not taken time to troubleshoot yet is that PCs on my network keep changing the network from Private to Public. As a result, file sharing gets disabled. I'm just curious to know if this is a widespread problem or just a "me" problem.

This happens seemingly out of the blue. I will connect to a share on another machine just fine. Literally a few min later when I try to do so again I get a little banner at the top of File Explorer kindly letting me know that file sharing is disabled.

Happens to me only all the time, since when my network was all Win 10 Pro and now mixed 10/11. It goes under the category of "Windows Annoyances."

 

[Motoman26]

I'm on Win 11 23H2 and it does it, it's been doing this for some time. None of Brinks suggestions work. Windows changes this setting at what appears to be every month. Has me wondering if patch Tuesday is resetting it inadvertently.

 

[Brink]

I'm on Win 11 23H2 and it does it, it's been doing this for some time. None of Brinks suggestions work. Windows changes this setting at what appears to be every month. Has me wondering if patch Tuesday is resetting it inadvertently.

Just to confirm, does that include setting the security policy (secpol.msc)?

 

[Motoman26]

Yeh Brink, sure does.

 

[hsehestedt]

So far, the secpol seems to be working for me. I ay need to let it run a few days more to get greater confidence in it, but it looks good so far.

 

[spokey]

So far so good 10 days in but I had to change all the entries to private to make it all work.