Network profile type (public/private) missing from GUI settings in Windows 11
May 5
I have two network interfaces installed on a Win 11 laptop. One for WLAN (onboard) and one for LAN (USB/dockingstation):
The WLAN is connected to the AP/router and works fine, I can change the public/private setting the normal way over the GUI settings:
The LAN port is connected to a switch (with one other Win10 PC). It's show as
unidentified networkand there is no option to change it from public to private in the GUI settings:
As a workaround I changed the LAN network profile via Powershell using Set-NetConnectionProfile -InterfaceAlias "Ethernet 7" -NetworkCategory Private, but why is the GUI option gone (see addition 01) and how do I get it back?
Addition 01: Upon further examination this seems to be connected to The Network Location Awareness (NLA). I suspect the option will reappear as soon as Windows is capable of identifying the network. I haven't at the time to find a way to fix this problem (except for my workaround using PowerShell). So the current question is: how can I make the local network identifiable for Windows?
1 answer
Accepted answer · original discussion
May 16
NLA uses the MAC address of the user's DSL or cable modem as the link ID.
To get the public/private option to show in the GUI windows needs to identify the network via the NLA service. To achieve that the network adapter connected to the network needs to have a default gateway.
Windows's NLA service will then identify the network by the MAC address of the device entered as default gateway. It doesn't have to be a a router, but there must be a device/MAC under that IP otherwise windows will keep trying to identify the network.
Your perspective belongs here.
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