Windows Change Network Type

I completely understand the segmentation of networks based on labels – Private for trusted internal communications, Public for non-trusted or external communications, and DomainAuthenticated for domain-joined systems. This allows for a more fine-tuned windows firewall experience and can create a more secure environment.

Unless the automatic labels get it wrong. OK, I should preface that I’ve never seen the automatic network labels go the wrong way – that is to say a “public” connection that is actually labeled as a private/trusted one. However, it’s still a PITA when Windows thinks the connection is untrusted (public) when it’s really something on the internal network.

It generally does this with my VPN connections. TUN and TAP both have had this issue, so I think it’s more a Windows-feature than anything else.

Enter PowerShell. You’ll see a theme here, I’ve been PSing a lot more lately.

  • Run an Elevated Powershell (run as administrator)
  • List out all network profiles
    • Get-NetConnectionProfile
  • Find the Interface Index of your connection, then set the category
    • Set-NetConnectionProfile -InterfaceIndex 22 -NetworkCategory Private

There are ways to do this from a Registry Editor perspective as well, but this seems to be the easiest way (and doesn’t require a reboot). More info here http://woshub.com/how-to-change-a-network-type-from-public-to-private-in-windows/

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