Choice of Network to use came up unexpectedly

[shokan2]

My laptop was on all night connected to the internet, my usual practice. In the morning, I found a dialog was on my desktop asking me to choose which network to use. Home, Public, something else. I chose Home and a few dialogs later, I was given a PW to write down for future connectivity.

What are the possible reasons this dialog should appear unexpectedly? I hadn't been doing anything related to network; there has only ever been just the laptop. I was just browsing all day the day before, as usual.

 

[Anak]

Some items come to mind:

• Did you have a local utility power outage that you are unaware of? And when the power came back your machine restarted itself, and felt the need to ask for a confirmation for logging back onto a network.
• Any recent tweaking to network or Wi-Fi router settings? An incoming request may have been blocked, prompting a security check.
• Have any programs that update themselves automatically?
• What type of anti-virus program do you use? A lack of activity may have prompted this.
• Did your pet walk on your keyboard?
• Any spills on or drop your machine?
• When was the last time you cleaned up your machine? http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/818-disk-cleanup-open-use.html?ltr=D&filter , http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/76383-disk-cleanup-extended.html
• We need more System Specs: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/180324-system-info-see-your-system-specs.html

You can check for an event that may have triggered this:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/226084-event-viewer-open-use-windows-7-a.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/179257-wake-source-read-event-viewer-log.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/160855-shut-down-view-details-last-shutdown-computer.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/122012-lastwake-command.html


It is troubling and I would also want to know what happened if it was me, but I don't think it is cause for much alarm.
What do you use for protection on your machine? Run your anti-virus on full scan to check for any abnormalities.

You may also want to run a disk check and http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

• We need more System Specs: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/180324-system-info-see-your-system-specs.html

 

[shokan2]

Some items come to mind:You can check for an event that may have triggered this

It is troubling and I would also want to know what happened if it was me, but I don't think it is cause for much alarm.
What do you use for protection on your machine? Run your anti-virus on full scan to check for any abnormalities.

I wouldn't recognize suspicious activity in an event log if I saw it. Here is a capture from the security event log from a time I was asleep. Anything unusual there?

Avast Free, btw.

 

[chev65]

My laptop was on all night connected to the internet, my usual practice. In the morning, I found a dialog was on my desktop asking me to choose which network to use. Home, Public, something else. I chose Home and a few dialogs later, I was given a PW to write down for future connectivity.

What are the possible reasons this dialog should appear unexpectedly? I hadn't been doing anything related to network; there has only ever been just the laptop. I was just browsing all day the day before, as usual.

You may not have realized it at the time but when Windows does this you are actually creating a Homegroup network without even realizing it. The password that you received is so other machines can join the Homegroup. You can add machines to your Homegroup or leave the Homegroup if you don't need one.

 

[shokan2]

My laptop was on all night connected to the internet, my usual practice. In the morning, I found a dialog was on my desktop asking me to choose which network to use. Home, Public, something else. I chose Home and a few dialogs later, I was given a PW to write down for future connectivity.

What are the possible reasons this dialog should appear unexpectedly? I hadn't been doing anything related to network; there has only ever been just the laptop. I was just browsing all day the day before, as usual.

You may not have realized it at the time but when Windows does this you are actually creating a Homegroup network without even realizing it. The password that you received is so other machines can join the Homegroup. You can add machines to your Homegroup or leave the Homegroup if you don't need one.

Yes, but why did the prompt dialogue to do this appear by itself during the night? As I said in my original post, I had done nothing but browse the internet the day before. Nothing else.