How to convert a Public network to a Home or Work network in Windows 7

I’ve been working with VirtualBox’s Host-Only Network interface and noticed that Windows 7 automatically places the Host-Only Network interface under the “Public Network” category with no way to change it. Now this is annoying because each time I need to access my Virtual Machine, I’ll need to drop Windows Firewall on Public Network. Here’s how I fixed it.

It turns out, as a security measure, Windows 7 treats any network interface that doesn’t have a gateway set as an “Unidentified Network”. Consequently, all “Unidentified Networks” are placed in the Public Network. Here’s what you need to do to fix it.

1. Open up the Network and Sharing Centre.
2. Click on the network interface that you would like to convert to Home/Work. This should bring up the Status window for the said interface.
3. Click the Details button. Note that there isn’t a value for IPv4 Default Gateway, though, in my case there is an IP Address for the IPv4 DHCP Server. Mine says 192.168.56.100 – note that because it will be a safe dummy IP address to use.
4. Close the Network Connection Details dialog box.
5. Back on the network interface status window, click on Properties to bring up the Network Properties window.
6. Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click *Properties.
7. Click on Advanced….
8. Under Default gateways, click Add and enter a dummy Gateway IP Address (I used 192.168.56.100 for mine).
9. Add, OK, OK, OK and Close.
10. A window should pop-up asking what category you would like to place the network interface under.
11. Congratulations!