One difference between your home or work networks and a public network is how this affects the protection levels on your computer. At home, or on a work network, you should be able to count on a hardware firewall, such as a NAT router, protecting your computer from prying eyes. When you are on a public network, however, you don’t have that option and you are forced to rely on a software firewall to protect your computer.
So, when you are on your home or work networks, you are generally more willing to allow various programs to run and access the Internet. Why? Because you are already protected from unauthorized access.
The public network location blocks certain programs and services from running to help protect your computer from unauthorized access while you’re connected to a network in a public place. If you’re connected to a public network and Windows Firewall is turned on, some programs or services might ask you to allow them to communicate through the firewall so that they will work properly.
When you allow a program to communicate through the firewall, it’s allowed for every network with the same location as the network you’re currently connected to. For example, if you connect to a network in a coffee shop and choose Public network as the location and then you unblock an instant message program, that program will be unblocked for all public networks that you connect to.
If you plan to unblock multiple programs while you’re connected to a public network, consider changing the network location to home network or work network. It might be safer to change this one network than affect every public network you connect to from that point on. But remember that if you make that change, your computer will be visible to others on the network, and this can be a substantial security risk.
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