Do you want to change your network connection from public to private?
Do you want the step by step guide for changing your network to a private connection?
If yes, then you came to the right place, setting your internet connection to private can have different benefits, like setting your machine on a private network can make it much more open than the one that is set on public network, which means that it’s more accessible than the device that is set on public network.
While it may seem to many users that setting your network connection to public can prove to be more secure than setting it on private network. There are a lot of different benefits of setting it on private network as well.
It’s not very difficult to change the network types on your device, but it can be difficult to make a choice between them as they both have their own benefits, and there are many different ways you can change between the network types.
Public And Private Network Types:
This is the method of commanding the windows towards how to treat your internet connection, saying that you only have to make a choice between the two, the rest is up to your operating system.
A public network is mostly found outside of a person’s personal space, and it will be available to many different people who don’t know each other. A public network is the one you get to connect to at a coffee shop or a library, you set the network connections of such places to public network, and windows limits the access of other devices connected to the same network connection, to your own device. In other words, it restricts access to your device by other people on the same network.
Meanwhile a Private internet connection is restricted to only certain people, like using an internet router as a center of connections throughout the house, is a great example of a private connection, private connections can help one device share files to other devices, wirelessly. You also might be able to access other devices, which is the reason for restricting and limiting access of connections metered as public networks.
There is more security when people set their connections as public network, this is because sharing a network can cause other people to access your own computer or any other device.
Many people ignore these options and randomly choose their connection not giving much though to it. This can prove to be dangerous for them, which is exactly why it’s important to set the suitable network type For each connection that is set up.
How to change your connection from Public to Private:
Now let’s review some different ways in which we can change our network type from, public to private.
Without further ado, let’s get started. From the Taskbar:
You can use the Taskbar to change your connection type,
- Click the Wi-Fi symbol on the right of your taskbar. This will open up all the available networks and it will show you the network you’re currently connected to.
- Click on properties which will appear under the network connection and a new window will appear.
- Choose the required connection option that is required, by selecting the appropriate option.
This will change your connection to the required type, this window will also tell you about the two connection types, it will basically tell you that the public connection type will make your connection more secure as it restricts access to your device.
And that you cannot use public network to share files and printers.
And it will also tell you about how the private network type is only for personal use and it let’s you access files on other devices that are connected to the same network.
If you want to use this method, you must make sure that the network that you want to change must be currently connected to your device, if it’s not then you must close the window, and connect to the network you want to change and then repeat the steps that are given above.
Change the Network Type using settings:
You can also use the settings of your windows to change the type of your network, mostly this method is used by people who are connected to the network via; Ethernet.
- Press windows key on your keyboard+ the X key.
- Choose the settings option.
- Choose the Network and Internet.
- Choose the Ethernet option written on the left side menu in the pane.
- Click and choose the name of your connection as you may have multiple connections listed there.
- Click on the Private option.
- Close the window.
Now you can find other computers that are also connected to the network while having their connection type as, private network. You can also use networked printers.
Change the network type using PowerShell:
If you don’t prefer to use any of the above methods, you can also use PowerShell and type in commands to command windows into changing the network type according to your preference. However, changing things through PowerShell requires you to run the program as an admin, it is important to do that because windows requires that level of access, in order to make some changes.
- Press windows key + X key.
- Click on windows PowerShell, and make sure to open it as an admin.
- A pop-up window will appear, click on yes to make sure that the program runs as an administrator.
- Type in the command, “get-net connection profile” and type in this command without the quotation marks, and then press enter on your keyboard. This command will show you detailed information about the network connection that you’re currently using.
- You will have to write down the name of the network that you’re planning to change to private, the reason for this is you are going to have to write down the exact name of the network in this next command.
- Type in, (“set-net connection profile”name-“network name”-networkcategory private).
- Type the above command without the external quotation marks as they have been put there to put emphasis only to help you understand better. Make sure that you write the name of the network where it says, “networkname” and make sure you do it with the quotations.
- Suppose the network name is “ my wifi network”. Then the command will end up looking like the following,
- Set-netconnectionprofile-name”my wifi network”-networkcategory private
- Press Enter.
- If you want to make sure if you changed the network type, you can type in the first command again which gives you detailed information of the current network.
When using this method, you don’t have to make sure If the capitalization of the network name is correct or not, you just have to make sure that the spelling is correct and that you have put the correct spaces.
Changing the network type by using Local group policy editor:
The group policy editor is a great feature of windows that let’s you edit your personal computer settings, most of the users don’t know about this editor, so, you can also switch the type of your network by using this policy editor.
- Open the run menu, by pressing windows key + R.
- Type in gpedit.msc and hit the enter button, this will open the local group policy editor.
- You will see different categories, that will be given, you will have to expand the following categories:
Computer configuration> windows settings> security settings.
- Highlight the network list manager policies by single clicking it, and a list of options will appear on the right hand side of the window.
- Double click the name of your network, and if you don’t see your network’s name written there, you can choose the unidentified networks, by double clicking on it.
- Click on the tab that says network locations, some types of networks may not have multiple tabs available.
- Click on private.
- Click apply and then click on ok.
- You will have to restart your machine in order for the changes to take effect.
There are always other ways than this that are more straight forward than following the above given method, but this method is prioritized by the people who are setting up computers for specific purposes.
Changing The Network Type By Making Registry Changes:
This is a method that is of course, not necessary but it is most certainly an option for changing the network type according to your own preference,
Saying that, remember to always create a backup as following this method involves changing the registry, and changing the registry can follow with some problems for your system.
- Press windows key + R key.
- Type regedit and press the enter key.
- Click yes on the window that will appear.
- Expand and follow the following path:
Computer> HKEY_Local_machine >software > Microsoft> windows NT> current version> network list> profiles.
- Under the profiles option you will see a list of different folders, that will display the information inside of it on the right side of the window, and each of these folders will represent the information regarding each connection that is made by your computer to the internet. The numbers and letter you see are called globally unique identifiers and each one will be different from the other.
- Single click and highlight one of the GUIDs which stands for globally unique identifiers and look at the profile name listing. And continue doing so until you find the network name that matches the network that you want to change the type of connection
- Double click on the category Entry in the same pane
- Now change the value data entry to 1 in order to change it to a private connection.
- Click ok.
- You will have to restart your computer in order for the changes to take effect.
While this method may look unappealing and unnecessary, many people use this method if they want to change the network type of different networks as quickly and fast as possible.
The value of data will be set to 0 if it’s public and 1 if it’s private, you can change the value of data according to your own preference.
Change network types from network settings:
Your network settings are not set in stones, you can change your network connection type by choosing it from your windows settings,
- Press windows key + X.
- Choose settings.
- Choose network and internet.
- Choose network and sharing center.
- Click advanced sharing settings.
- Expand the network type and choose one of the three choices, private, guest or public, or all networks.
- Decide what you want to share by expanding and how you want to share it.
- Close the window.
You can also choose to do private networking momentary and opt-in or out of it whenever you feel the need, and you can take advantage of both the options. After you choose private network, you can change the password encryption by choosing what kind of encryption you will use and you can also choose if sharing of files and printers should be password protected or not.
Many windows users think that which connection is more safe and secure to use, and it’s a valid and important one to answer, Connecting to a network that is set as private is considered safer however, the public network type is the safer option here.
Meanwhile, it all depends on the circumstances of these networks, if you’re in an environment where you feel safe then you can choose the private network and it will come with its own perks and advantages that you can use, and you can choose the public network when you feel like your device can be vulnerable and you’re using network that is connected to many other devices other than people who you trust or know.
Conclusion:
We have discussed different ways to change the network type to your own preference and we have also discussed which network type is best suited for which environment. The rest is up to you and we wish you the best of luck.