NetSetMan Support

daniel3000

Member

Registered: 2011-02-08

Posts: 7

Set network location from NSM

Hi,
one thing I miss in NetSetMan is a way to automatically configure (profile-absed) the network location.
A new network is always classified as "public" in the first place, even if I set it to "private" ("home" or "work") before.
It would be nice if NetSetMan could set the location automatically to "private" (in order to enable file sharing for example) for a certain profile.

Thanks,
Daniel

daniel3000

Member

Registered: 2011-02-08

Posts: 7

Re: Set network location from NSM

- empty post, just to subscribe to this topic (forgot that in the first place) -

NetSetMan Support

Administrator

Registered: 2005-08-06

Posts: 1,878

Re: Set network location from NSM

If you're talking about this Vista/7 specific feature then it's already on my ToDo list. However, I didn't implement it yet for two reasons:
1. It's not available in WinXP, so this feature would be greyed out for those users which is not the best thing for a user interface.
2. Actually for each new location Windows asks whether the location is Home, Work or Public and accordingly adjusts the settings. This has to be done only once. After then Windows automatically applies this setting. I'm not sure if you're not receiving this dialog because you deactivated it or because there's some other constelation that I'm not aware of.

Btw: Each topic has a "Subscribe to this topic" below the last posting.

daniel3000

Member

Registered: 2011-02-08

Posts: 7

Re: Set network location from NSM

Hi Ilja,
thanks for replying.
Yes, I am taking about this Vista/7-specific feature.
What about instead of greying out the setting just not display it on XP?
I guess I have received the location dialog the first time I set up this WLAN connection, but if I understand this, the setting is tied to the network adapter, not the actual connection, and I connect this WLAN adapter to different networks which require different location settings. Each time I change the NetSetMan profile (no, even each time I reconnect, even if it's with the same network and the same settings!) it's switched to "Public" again. Very annoying. I have asked at several places (windows-seven-forum, device-specific forum) about how to persist this setting in some way, but noone seems to know how.
So if NetSetMan would support his, it would be great.
Let me know if you need a betatester for this feature :-)

Re. subscribing. Yes, now that you say it, I see it, too ;-)

Thanks!
Daniel

NetSetMan Support

Administrator

Registered: 2005-08-06

Posts: 1,878

Re: Set network location from NSM

but if I understand this, the setting is tied to the network adapter, not the actual connection

It's actually exactly the other way round. Windows recognizes the network by some parameters and applies those private/public settings accordingly. However, this only works if that network has a DHCP-server or some default gateway which can be taken for recognizing the network.

For example if you connect to a new router by WiFi the network is recognized and its private/public settings can be set and the SSID is taken as the name for this connection. If you then turn off your WiFi adapter and instead connect by LAN to the same router Windows will show you, that you're connected to the same network as before. Including the privacy settings and the name.

daniel3000

Member

Registered: 2011-02-08

Posts: 7

Re: Set network location from NSM

ah okay, this might explain why Windows does not remember that my ad-hoc WLAN connection from the UMPC (Win7, NetSetMan) to the laptop (WinXP) with static IP, no DHCP and no gateway settings is a private network. Bummer.

So you mean if I enable DHCP (also APIPA?) on that connection somehow, the setting would be remembered? But how to do that? I'd have to enable a DHCP server on WinXP side.

Such a location setting in NetSetMan would be really great!

Daniel

NetSetMan Support

Administrator

Registered: 2005-08-06

Posts: 1,878

Re: Set network location from NSM

OK, I now understand your constellation. I'll see what I can do with a feature that would allow switching those privacy settings from within NetSetMan. But it'll take a while... there are some other features waiting to be implemented as well.

I don't know if the location recognition works in an ad-hoc environment. You'll need to try out yourself by installing some DHCP server. There should be some solutions for that available on the net. Please let me know if you find something out or can find another workaround.

daniel3000

Member

Registered: 2011-02-08

Posts: 7

Re: Set network location from NSM

I have tried a workaround by not using static IP addresses but using APIPA instead (169.254.x.x).
IP addresses are assigned successfully to both devices, and on repeated connecting the WLAN now always "Work" location is applied. Fine!
But unfortunately, the local security settings / firewall of the company I work for don't seem to allow any communication over APIPA addresses, so I cannot use this connection for anything. Even a simple ping fails. I cannot change the firewall settings.
So I went back to static IP for now.

Daniel

pachy

Member

Registered: 2017-02-07

Posts: 5

Re: Set network location from NSM

Hi,
one thing I miss in NetSetMan is a way to automatically configure (profile-absed) the network location.
A new network is always classified as "public" in the first place, even if I set it to "private" ("home" or "work") before.
It would be nice if NetSetMan could set the location automatically to "private" (in order to enable file sharing for example) for a certain profile.

Thanks,
Daniel

Hi... i m also interested to have a tool to easyly change the network location... Something will it be possible with NSM ?

NetSetMan Support

Administrator

Registered: 2005-08-06

Posts: 1,878

Re: Set network location from NSM

We've actually already prepared this functionality, but have not included it in the official release yet because of several reasons:

The most important one is that there's no official API to distinguish between Home and Work (both are "Private). So when we switch from Public to Private we need to adjust the Home/Work settings with a workaround. This works, but unfortunately the location icon (house/office image) is not updated. We've spent quite a while with this problem and in the end decided to drop this feature because the result might confuse the users. We understand that this network location icon has been removed in Windows 8/10, so if you're not on Windows 7 you might not understand that problem, but we need to make sure all our features work for all users the same way.

In our understanding Windows takes care of that setting automatically. If that doesn't work for some reason, there's probably a problem somewhere else and it would be wiser to address the actual problem instead of manually trying to force the correct location type.

Could you please describe your use case in detail?

pachy

Member

Registered: 2017-02-07

Posts: 5

Re: Set network location from NSM

I use W10 pro. I'm working on LAN, with specific software and hardware for audio application.
When i'm connecting an ethernet cable on my computer with specific hardware, the defaut location is public. Firewall block ports from my apllis...
  it's not easy on w10 to change the location....
I think it will be good if i ll be able to make a NSM Profile for my lan card with private location by defaut for unknow network.
Maybe there's an other solution....
Thks

batkung

Member

Registered: 2017-10-09

Posts: 1

Re: Set network location from NSM

I too would love to see this feature. I frequently have to connect using my wired port to different networks to perform tasks using different bits of software, periodically (usually after a windows update) windows resets my firewall permissions in public mode to deny all incoming traffic instead of deny all except those applications on my allowed list. Having this feature would be good so that I can set the network type to private for specific IP profiles.