Windows 7 Win 7 Pro 32 won't see network, won't honor static IPv4

[Richmilnix]

I'm posting this at a couple of Windows networking forums.

We set up three new terminals this week at the office; they're all running Win 7 Pro 32-bit. I set them all up simultaneously (literally sat at a desk and entered the same keystrokes at each of them), so I don't see any obvious reason that one is behaving differently from the other two. The essential problem is that the terminal doesn't see the Internet.

Here are all the particulars that I think might be interesting, listed in no particular order:

- The terminal ran fine for several hours. Email access, Internet access, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. At that point, the user called me to show me a dialog box. I used System Restore to go back in time to 9 a.m. in case the user had somehow managed to do anything (though she's not an admin).

- IPv6 is disabled.

- The workplace uses Static IPs. The IP address is entered correctly in the IPv4 properties (x.x.x.213), but at cmd / ipconfig, I get this result: "Autoconfiguration IPv4 address: 169.254.95.187"

- In Network and Sharing Center, the network (which is only known as Unidentified Network) is set to type Public. When I reset it to type Work and reboot, it resets to type Public.

Any input is appreciated.

 

[Trouble]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
My first question would be, are all three of these new machines identical in all respects, Hardware as well as installed Software?
If so compare the driver being used by each for the network adapter and determine the Vendor/Supplier of the driver, the driver date and version number. I suppose it's possible that the Windows Update Utility might have installed a driver on one and not the others but I would think that a system restore would have taken care of that, however you may want to attempt a manual roll back of the driver from device manager or failing that a complete removal of the device from device manager including drivers and reboot.
And confirm that there isn't some third party software (network management, adapter teaming software, or security suite) present that might be impacting your changes.
Are other changes you are making regarding the adapter (Disabling IPv6) being preserved through the reboot?
Since you are apparently using static IP addressing; You may want to disable the DHCP client services in the services console (services.msc) and since you seem to be getting an APIPA address assignment after the reboot you may also want to disable that as well. Configuring TCP/IP networking
Additionally if these machines are members of an Active Directory Domain, make sure they are all members of the same OU as to preclude a GPO from impacting one differently than the others.
Keep us posted
Regards
Randy

 

[Richmilnix]

Although this thread is eighteen months old, I see that I never posted the solution. Here's what it was:

Since our workplace uses fixed IPs, the router does not serve DHCP. Apparently, when Win7 connects to a network that doesn't assign DHCP, it sets the network type to Public. This triggers a feature/bug that I found well-documented elsewhere whereby a user on a public network can't change the type of network (because it's a public network). I think this is known as Project Kafka.

Anyway, the workarounds that I found for that - which did the trick - involved diving into the registry to flip the bit that allows a user to change the network type.

 

[nmsuk]

Although this thread is eighteen months old, I see that I never posted the solution. Here's what it was:

Since our workplace uses fixed IPs, the router does not serve DHCP. Apparently, when Win7 connects to a network that doesn't assign DHCP, it sets the network type to Public. This triggers a feature/bug that I found well-documented elsewhere whereby a user on a public network can't change the type of network (because it's a public network). I think this is known as Project Kafka.

Anyway, the workarounds that I found for that - which did the trick - involved diving into the registry to flip the bit that allows a user to change the network type.

.

Any chance you could post which entries need changing so as to help other users.