Network Locations were introduced first with Windows Vista but they somehow managed to feel half-baked and confusing. Windows 7 refines this feature quite a lot and, this time, it proves to be more useful.
In this article I will explain what network locations are, what choices the user has and how to switch between them, depending on the network you are connected to.
What is a Network Location
A network location in Windows 7 is a profile which contains a collection of network and sharing settings which get applied to the network you are connected to. Based on the network location which is assigned to your active network connection, features such as file & printer sharing, network discovery and others might be turned on or off.
These network locations are very useful to people who are very mobile and connect their computers to many networks. For example, you could use your work laptop to connect to your company network, take it home at the end of the day, connect to your home network and, during the weekend, go to a friend’s place and connect to his network. Each time you connect to a new network, Windows 7 will assign a network profile. With one choice, you get the entire set of network settings correctly changed. This way you won’t compromise your security and you have enabled only the network features you actually need on each network. continue reading…
A growing number of people use laptops, notebooks and netbooks instead of desktop PCs. As a result of this trend, lots of wireless networks appear every day and more people use them on a regular basis. Windows 7 is suited very well for netbooks and it works perfectly well on all other types of mobile PCs. Also, it offers all you need to connect to wireless networks effortlessly. In this tutorial I will show you how to detect wireless networks in Windows 7 and how to connect to them. As you will see, the procedure is very simple and requires very few steps.
