Win10 connection changes to Public on router reboot

[Bopsie]

I support a non-profit that has 8 Dell OptiPlex 7010 desktops running Windows 10 1809. They have a Netgear R6700v2 router. In the Win10 Network settings, the Connection Type is Private. Whenever the router is rebooted, all the computers change the connection type from Private to Public, breaking Wake on LAN, Remote Desktop, and shared file browsing. I have to go to each computer and change the type from Public back to Private.

I realize that the start of the problem may be in the router (depending on what it says to the NIC on reboot), or may be in the NIC or its driver (depending on how they interpret the reboot event and its data), or may be in Windows (depending on what it thinks about all this fuss). But I have no idea where to start looking for the stage where something is causing some logic to think it's a new network, and thus should be Public. Any suggestions or explanations would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[L&LD]

I would first start with upgrading their computers to 1903 first before finding workarounds for old bugs.

 

[AndreiV]

What antivirus are you running on these PC's?

 

[tyspeed42]

WIN 10 is very buggy even 1903.

 

[Bopsie]

The few I checked are at 1803. All Use Windows Defender and Windows Firewall. I'll for one to upgrade to 1903, then check it out.

Is there any documentation describing the things Windows uses to decide that is on a "new" network (and needs to ask for the type or defaults to Public)?....

 

[AndreiV]

Not quite the same scenario but worth a look :

https://newsignature.com/articles/network-location-awareness-service-can-ruin-day-fix/

When this happens is the modem also being rebooted? Maybe a dynamic IP change causes the problem.

 

[Bopsie]

Not quite the same scenario but worth a look :

https://newsignature.com/articles/network-location-awareness-service-can-ruin-day-fix/

THANK YOU!!!! You opened my eyes to Network Location Awareness! I looked at that link and started branching out from there with help from Google. In one corner of the net, I found a person whose router kept changing its MAC address. After looking around the registry of one of the affected desktops, I found that this router was also changing it's MAC address. One computer I looked at is on Network 6, although it is the same physical router for over 2 years. None of the MAC addresses look remotely similar. I thought the MAC address of a device should never change....

So I'm going to try some tests to verify the events, including trying to capture some data with Wireshark. Then contact Netgear to see what their story is. But thank you for setting my direction.