I reported this bug in win8cp about a month ago. Now this same defective behavior has been added to windows 7 via one or more of the several windows updates that became available circa 5/9/2012. It manifests as a failure to connect to a wireless network of the 'home/private' type. Instead, what happens is it connects to it with the wrong network type: Public! And it states that the connection is "Limited." When the connection status is "Limited," Internet access is completely blocked. The short of it is that when the connection code in windows tries to establish a connection to the network (wireless router), it first attempts to connect to it as a 'public' network type, even though the network type was defined as a 'private/home' network type at the time the network was defined in windows! Windows appears to be unable to remember the most basic fact about the particular network connection - it's network type - which in this case is 'private/home' and NOT public !!! This bug is associated with the configuration of the 'Windows Firewall with Advanced Security.' I configure the firewall to block ALL incoming connections and to block outgoing connections, unless an explicit rule exists for a particular application or service that allows it to establish an outgoing connection. This is how I configure all three firewall profiles: Domain, Public and Private. One more fact: I hide the SSID of the wireless router. I have configured the connection by checking the checkbox that states something like "Connect to the network even if it is not broadcasting its SSID," the exact text of the option not being in front of me at this moment. This bug does not occur and the connection code in windows will connect to the aforesaid network correctly, using the correct network type, Private/Home, if I first change the firewall configuration for the 'Public' profile to allow outgoing connections by default! This is extremely odd, peculiar and questionable behavior. If I do establish a connection this way, I can then change the configuration for the Public profile back to the way I like it: Blocked by default, after the connection has been correctly established. I am sure that anyone reading this with any security smarts at all will understand why I do not wish to leave the Public firewall profile set to allow outgoing connections by default, just as a work-around for this bug. So, why does windows want to try to connect to a 'Private/Home' network using the firewall settings for 'Public' and require it (the Public Profile) to not block any outgoing activity, whatsoever? That is the question ... The unavoidable conclusion is that Microsoft is saying: "Hey I gotta talk to home base but you got me blocked, so I'm going to throw a tantrum and refuse to connect correctly to this firewall blocked network." I know that this is a bit dramatic, so why don't you Microsoft engineers tell me what the logic sequence is here that windows is employing. As a programmer, myself, it seems that connection code that is attempting to connect to a 'Private/Home' network should not be attempting to connect to the network as a 'Public' network! I know I am right about this. So, what's going on? And would you please, please fix windows so that it no longer does really stupid stuff like this? Both Windows 8 and now Windows 7, as of 9 May 2012 exhibit this anti-social behavior. It's like Windows 7 got whipped with a 'stupid-stick' on 5/9/12, the same stupid-stick that whipped Windows 8 CP (or earlier?) at its inception. Thank you very much for looking into this! Charles S. Cotton

5/29/2012 Update: I seem to have resolved this issue, for now, by editing Group Policy: In the Group Policy Local Computer Policy\Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Network List Manager node, the Network location can be set for each network, including the Identifying Network state for which the location can also be set, and it appears that the windows connection component adheres to these settings. This appears to work in both Windows 7 and Windows 8, although the current version of Windows 8 does not display the network icon, which I am hopeful will reappear in a subsequent release of the product. If it is true that Windows 7 Home Premium users don't have the policy editor, then they're out of luck, unless they can figure out where in the registry these settings are stored. They could always upgrade to Windows 7 professional to solve their connection bugs! Of course, one should not have to resort to group policy settings just to trick the Windows Connection component into 'remembering' the network location for a network, once it has been defined by the user. Therefore, I consider this to be a temporary work-around awaiting a fix by Microsoft of the bug, now in both windows 7 and windows 8: The Connection Component doesn't care to remember the network location for the private/home/work network locations, all of which use the Private Windows firewall profile. This is true only if Outgoing Connections are blocked by default in the Public firewall profile. It is not logical that the connection to a Private Network (Home, Private or Work) should be, in any way, affected by the state of the Public firewall profile !!! Having to use Group Policy to force the location should not be necessary, nor is it the purpose of Group Policy, which in this case, would be to prevent the user from changing a network name, location and/or icon. Charles S. Cotton