why does Windows Firewall say Public Networks Connected?

kegobeer · 18 Mar 2011

firewallQ said:

"I have a dev machine that's never been connected to the internet, and it shows the firewall is connected."

Kegobeer, thanks. Can you please specify? Does it say "connected" next to "public networks" or both "private" and "public" networks in your Windows Firewall setting page?

When not connected to the internet, under Windows Firewall with Advanced Security, it shows "Public Profile is Active". On a computer that is connected, it shows "Private Profile is Active" (on a private, ie: home, network).

firewallQ · 22 Mar 2011

severedsolo said:

FirewallQ please use the edit button, it makes life so much simpler when formulating replies to long responses such as yours :)

Sorry, I don't see any edit button.

You wrote: By the way, 3,000,000 bytes is about 2.96MB, which if you had a connection error to the server, would probably be about 1 update, hence why you got the "configuring updates" message very briefly, it was sorting out the 1-2 updates it HAD managed to grab. As for the 1,000 or so you saw afterwards, I would expect to see that, because WIndows update would be trying to reconnect to the server.

No, the message was NOT "configuring updates", which would have been expected. It was a different message about "configuring" definitely WITHOUT the word "updates". This is why it was so weird and why I asked the question.

UPDATE!!! Another user on the HP User Forum has just told me that his Windows Firewall says "NOT CONNECTED" for "Public Networks". So now what are we to make of this discrepancy?

Also, in this forum, our other user friend (sorry I can't remember your name now) has just told us that his says "ACTIVE" instead of "CONNECTED"; why this difference?

For someone so paranoid about security... taking an unprotected machine onto a public hotspot is not exactly a brilliant idea.

Not ideal but have no choice, because the alternative would be setting everything up in another country (not to be named) where the risks are likely even higher.

You wrote: Im still willing to bet its Loopback, but I won't completely discount the notion you may have picked something up. All of your symptoms can be explained by other stuff though, just saying.

The other forum's user said his Firewall says "NOT CONNECTED" for Public Networks, so I guess it can't be the Loopback. Can someone with the know-how (of contact method and/or connections) help us get an answer from Microsoft?

firewallQ · 22 Mar 2011

Well, using the QUOTE button messed everything up, so please disregard my earlier post, and see this one instead:

You wrote: please use the edit button, it makes life so much simpler when formulating replies to long responses such as yours :)

Sorry, I don't see any edit button.

You wrote: By the way, 3,000,000 bytes is about 2.96MB, which if you had a connection error to the server, would probably be about 1 update, hence why you got the "configuring updates" message very briefly, it was sorting out the 1-2 updates it HAD managed to grab. As for the 1,000 or so you saw afterwards, I would expect to see that, because WIndows update would be trying to reconnect to the server.

No, the message was NOT "configuring updates", which would have been expected. It was a different message about "configuring" definitely WITHOUT the word "updates". This is why it was so weird and why I asked the question.

Also, can you explain to this novice why you would expect to see more than a 1000 bytes of download (vs. upload) if there was only trying but no actual connection to the server?

UPDATE!!! Another user on the HP User Forum has just told me that his Windows Firewall says "NOT CONNECTED" for "Public Networks". So now we are back to square 1. What are we to make of this discrepancy?

Also, in this forum, our other user friend (sorry I can't remember your name now) has just told us that his says "ACTIVE" instead of "CONNECTED"; why this difference?

You wrote: For someone so paranoid about security... taking an unprotected machine onto a public hotspot is not exactly a brilliant idea.

Not ideal but have no choice, because the alternative would be setting everything up in another country (not to be named) where the risks are likely even higher.

You wrote: Im still willing to bet its Loopback, but I won't completely discount the notion you may have picked something up. All of your symptoms can be explained by other stuff though, just saying.

The user on the other forum said his Firewall says "NOT CONNECTED" for Public Networks, so I guess it can't be the Loopback. Can someone who is able and knows how to get Microsoft support for free help us get an answer from them? Thanks!

severedsolo · 22 Mar 2011

Well you've got me. I have no idea then. I still suspect that it is normal behaviour, but as you said, I can't prove it, and I certainly can't tell you why it's doing it.

In answer to your question, I didn't actually read what you said properly, that was a mistake on that part. I misread it as 1000B of upload. All the same, approx. 1KB of download is not anything to write home about, that would suggest to me to be normal low level internet activity. (My connection very rarely actually hits 0 if there is an active connection, Windows is listening on ports 445 and port 49159 constantly, as well as various other programs such as flash and java periodically listening for updates, whether they were installed at the time I don't know) My apologies for the mistake there.

On Active vs Connected, Just a guess here, but it could be down to language differences or OEM vs Retail versions of 7. Certainly in this context the two are interchangable.

You may be better off posing your connections on Technet's networking section; Windows 7 Networking Forum as frankly, I have no more answers for you. Im as stumped as you are, I'd certainly be interested to know the response though.