I have Win7 on two computers. One is Ultimate retail and the second one is the RC. Main = Ult retail Second = RC My main computer connects to the internet with a wireless modem to a wireless router and all is well with this. My second connects to my main with a direct lan cable and uses the wireless card on Main for internet access (ICS) and this works fine. But on Main I see both networks... the Wireless is fine and set as Home/Work the Lan network is listed is "Unidentified" and is set as Work I followed directions to set the second network to Home so I could use homegroup... "Disable both network cards... enable the Lan... call it a Home network... re enable the WLan And this works... Until I reboot!!! Then it sets my Lan network back to Work and Homegroup no longer works! I cannot "Identify" this "Unidentified" network no matter how hard I try to tell it that it is a SINGLE CABLE BETWEEN TWO COMPUTERS WHICH ARE BOTH WITHIN ARMS REACH! There is no router to configure... the IP is static due to the ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) How do I tell Windows 7 that this network is trusted and a Home network?

I think if you search here the answer has something to do with the fact your ICS network has no gateway.If I remember right the suggested answer was to turn off "network awareness or something..sorry it is nothing which would come up for me so I just read over it and did not take notes.

So, how does one make Windows use a gateway?

Maybe someone has a place where I can look for an answer to this? A suggestion? A hint?

I've never seen a way to change "unidentified network" to come other name. I have a D-Link router, so it isn't that I don't have a router. I don't think 'unidentified network" is a problem. Windows Vista and 7 both seem to put that in, and don't seem to give you a way to change it. Denise Moore

I should explain that while people seem to think "UNIDENTIFIED NETWORK" is some kind of error, it doesn't actually seem to be. Our local area network worked find as that under Vista and now under Windows 7. It's ANNOYING that Microsoft hasn't given a way to name a LAN, but it doesn't seem to actually be a problem. Denise Moore ---- 2 HP a1730n Pavillion Desktops, AMD 64 X 2 5000+/5600+, 3072/2048 800MHz DDR2, 4 GB ReadyBoost, 320 GB HDD, Nvidia 6150LE, D-Link DGE-530T NIC, D-Link Green DGS-1005B router, VersaExpress ADSL, Win 7 Home Premium

Yeah, and I agree, "unidentified network" can be worked around... and to be sure, all of my networking was working. But what doesn't work is HOMEGROUP, because you cannot be part of a homegroup on an unidentified network... Unless.... :D Ok, so this has been a major pain in my side and no one seems to know why or how this works so I decided to just start poking around and fiddling around and I asked a network buddy some questions to fill in some gaps and here's what I've come up with. I'm going to try to be detailed... I hope I don't bore you, but I have a feeling that there are others who are in the same boat as I am so maybe some of this will help. First off... You have to have the most up to date drivers for your network cards and it is VERY possible that even the most up to date ones will not be sufficient. (I have a feeling this is my problem) Now, I have two machines which are configured like this: Main: USB Wireless Network card connected to secure Wireless router in another room... This Internet connection is shared 10/100 Lan Network card connected DIRECTLY to SECOND computer (No Router) Second: 10/100 Lan Network card connected DIRECTLY to MAIN computer (No Router) ... Using ICS for the Internet On the Main computer I have the following settings: WIRELESS (irrellevant) WIRED: Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection HOME: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Marvell Yukon 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ether net Controller Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1F-C6-2B-F7-81 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.137.1(Preferred) Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0 192.168.137.78 NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled Notice the Default Gateway.... the IP 192.168.137.78 is what I set the default gateway to. It is the IP address of SECOND computer. SECOND computer has a default gateway set to the IP of MAIN computer 192.168.137.1 So, in other words, each computer is set to use the other as the default gateway. When I did this .. .(remember, I was just poking around and trying stuff) I ended up with a very strange setup in my Network and sharing center... After I changed the default gateway on MAIN I disabled all of my network cards and re enabled them in this order... the LAN card, then the WIRELESS card, When I was done Network and Sharing center showed THREE networks!!! Yes, Two Network adapters but THREE networks... They are like this: NETWORK - Home network (Access type: Internet | Homegroup: Joined | Connections: Local Area Connection HOME) LINKSYS - Work Network (Access type: Internet | Connections: Wireless Network Connection) Unidentified network - Work Network (Access type: Internet | Connections: Local Area Connection HOME) (I renamed my LAN connection to "Local Area Connection HOME) Where it gets REAL weird is when I look at the network maps: The map for the Wireless network looks normal, but the map for "Local Area Connection HOME" Looks like this.... (remember, I am on MAIN computer) MAIN ========HUB========SECOND=======Internet Now, I don't have a HUB installed in this network. It's a direct cable connection between two Ethernet LAN cards. Bottom line... This solves the problem. I have a home network with HOMEGROUP enabled and working... Both computers can see the net and I'm just not real sure how I did it. If anyone can explain it to me then I'd be very grateful! Thanks for everyone's time and patience. Brian

I have similar problem. I had tried this trick but it did not work for me. In my case I have 1 computer directly connected to internet and 7 other computers sharing Internet connection from Computer 1.