Network Settings

[Blake]

It's the people that have the wired connection. Not everyone that has the wired connection are trusted. 

Your right, but going about it the wrong way. You don't secure the network from the client side. You'd want to look into IPsec or RADIUS (or heck go basic and filter network access based on MAC address).

[Guest]

Hi, first off I'm sorry I haven't made a comment in a while. The OS for my laptop which is about half of my testing for networking and programming etc... got messed up pretty bad. Upon in depth testing though, I had noticed that the stock OS that came with my PC does NOT support dual booting. My original plan was to have the stock factory OS (Windows 7) installed along side a more recent OS such as Windows 8.1 for testing. So I am currently in the process of putting 8.1 on my laptop and installing drivers and then go from there. I should be able to return to this topic soon. This has been a real drag getting caught up in this OS mess, but at least I learned a few things about preinstalled systems. They are shit. 

[Guest]

control panel > network and internet > network and sharing center > change adapter settings > (find your interface) > Right-click the interface, Properties.

 

or 

 

from command prompt type in IPCONFIG /ALL

 

@Yames Windows will only store information on network adapters settings, such as IP etc, and only for the current settings. It does not store any history of such things, but it does keep track of each network adapter that has been installed in the computer and it's last IP configuration (except DHCP).

 

As @Altecice point out  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces , this is where it is kept.

 

History of wired networks you have connected to are not kept, the location type (Home, Work, Public) are but that's it. You can't go back and look at network configuration settings like IP etc. You also can't do that for wireless either, the wireless profiles only keep the SSID, password etc to connect to them not how to setup the adapter for network access once connected.

 

If this is not what you meant or need any clarification let us know.

How the hell did you guys manage to go that far in files to find this kind of stuff

[Guest]

@Yames Windows will only store information on network adapters settings, such as IP etc, and only for the current settings. It does not store any history of such things, but it does keep track of each network adapter that has been installed in the computer and it's last IP configuration (except DHCP).

 

As @Altecice point out  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces , this is where it is kept.

 

History of wired networks you have connected to are not kept, the location type (Home, Work, Public) are but that's it. You can't go back and look at network configuration settings like IP etc. You also can't do that for wireless either, the wireless profiles only keep the SSID, password etc to connect to them not how to setup the adapter for network access once connected.

 

If this is not what you meant or need any clarification let us know.

The history part of wired networks as you said. Where are those kept? 

 

Okay so then how the hell would Windows know which passwords for which networks? It has to know how to differentiate from which networks. It must store this kind of stuff somewhere. 

[Guest]

-snip

I can't seem to find firewall with advanced security, is it just normal firewall on windows 8.1?

 

edit - nervermind, found it on control panel left side column 

 

Okay after doing what you've said, I've had a look at them, but I don't understand why there's private, domain, and public, where is the label for a work network? 

[Guest]

Regedit.exe (start > run)

Be warned the Registry is a bad place to be if you are not comfortable with it, you can break things very quickly.

I had a look in there, but I don't understand anything in there. 

[Guest]

Your right, but going about it the wrong way. You don't secure the network from the client side. You'd want to look into IPsec or RADIUS (or heck go basic and filter network access based on MAC address).

There are times when certain setups do not allow you to have much of a choice based upon a persons limitations. I know, you would think for sure that a direct wired connection would be the safest route 100% of the time. Unfortunately not always. 

[leadeater]

The history part of wired networks as you said. Where are those kept? 

 

Okay so then how the hell would Windows know which passwords for which networks? It has to know how to differentiate from which networks. It must store this kind of stuff somewhere. 

 

Wired networks generally don't require passwords to connect so don't have an equivalent interface to store that kind of information unlike wireless connections which do generally require passwords. You can have authenticated wired networks but these are exceptionally rare and only found in home server labs who have setups like businesses that can use group policy to configure the Windows OS to work with that type of connection. You can also use local policy, gpedit.msc, to setup wired authentication.

 

Wired authentication or 802.1X/RADIUS requires a lot of server and network support to work, it is not something you can just use at home. The switch must support 802.1X port authentication and then you will also need a RADIUS server.

 

Even if you setup wired authentication it does not make the network traffic that is allowed on to the network and that which flows through the network any more secure. This is purely for only allowing known computers on to the network, or unknown to guest network if you wish to have one, and configuring the device on the correct VLAN. It does not mean that the user at the device is trusted or the device itself is secure.

 

To answer you question about how I know these things, this is my day job. I'm a Systems Engineer so deal with this stuff all the time. I'd gladly give you all my experience and training but unfortunately this is not the Matrix so I can't just upload it directly to your brain

[Guest]

@leadeater 

 

I found where a history of networks are in Windows 7 for both wired and wireless. All it does is show the networks and you can choose whether to merge or delete, it's still very helpful though it might not sound like much. I'm still in progress for all previous wired and their settings/data though. It's going to be different for Windows 8.1 as well. That's something I'll dig into later.