I have a windows 7 box with no keyboard and mouse attached. It sits in a corner, connects to my home router through a switch, wired, no wireless. I intend to use it from my other computers through "remote desktop/RDP". However, everytime after a reboot, it can not find the network location, keeps on asking me to set network location to private/work/public -- I had to hook it with keyboard and mouse after every reboot. Otherwise, although it aquire its IP address, windows firewall blocks external accesses. It is really frustrating. The windows 7 detected network number increases by 1 after each reboot, and I haven't figured out a way to lock the network to "private". The box is hardwired to the network, the same location, why Windows 7 can't figure out the network location???

IrritatedByWindows7 wrote: I have a windows 7 box with no keyboard and mouse attached. It sits in a corner, connects to my home router through a switch, wired, no wireless. I intend to use it from my other computers through "remote desktop/RDP". However, everytime after a reboot, it can not find the network location, keeps on asking me to set network location to private/work/public -- I had to hook it with keyboard and mouse after every reboot. Otherwise, although it aquire its IP address,  windows firewall blocks external accesses. It is really frustrating. The windows 7 detected network number increases by 1 after each reboot, and I haven't figured out a way to lock the network to "private". The box is hardwired to the network, the same location, why Windows 7 can't figure out the network location??? Do you have a static IP-address or get an IP-address via a DHCP-server on your network. Does the DHCP server handout a DNS domain name to your Win7 box? Wolfgang

This might sound like a silly question, but how old is this computer? The hardware, not the OS install.

Please upgrade the network adapter driver and then check the result. If the issue persists, I suggest you temporary disable firewall and antivirus, then check the result.Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

The Windows 7 box gets a dynamic IP address from my router, although each time it get the same address. I don't have name server running, so I am using IP address directly, e.g, 192.168.xxx.xxx. My router has a few ethernet ports. One of ports connects to a switch while the rest directly connect to a few PCs. My windows 7 box and a PBO(Partriot Box Office) sit behind the switch. Somehow, the windows 7 box acquires the address but can not specify the network/firewall rules?

I built the PC last year. It is sort of my htpc/home server, intent for running headless, no monitor/keryboard/mouse. That's why it is so frustrating! It was running fine for a while, but just recently began to have this problem. I might have to think hard what changes I did with my network, but really I don't think I did anything that would have Windows 7 confused -- the setup is fairly simple.

I guess I could try this and totally disable firewall. The win 7 box sits behind NAT and I don't run antivirus software anyway, but I thought win7 should be better that this though...

Each time you reboot Windows scans for hardware changes and it's detecting your network adapter as newly installed. This is why it's incrementing by one every reboot and why it's asking you to redefine your network. It's either because of a problematical driver or a hardware failure. If you've allowed Windows to update the network drivers from Windows Update recently, try rolling them back to the previous version. Also, go into the machine's BIOS and check all the settings to make sure nothing has changed and everything is correct (pay particular attention to the date/time.) If anything's out-of-order and you don't remember changing it yourself this could be the sign of a failing CMOS battery causing the BIOS to reset with every reboot.