Windows 7/Vista – Unidentified Network

• Windows 7/Vista – Unidentified Network
  

Here’s the problem which many are having but can’t come across a solid fix for.  I’m running a Windows 7 box with a USB Wireless modem shared into an Adhoc network as a virtual router, for my home network of computers, and there has been a very annoying persistent ”Unidentified Network” appearing in Network Connections. I tried all the common solutions; update NIC drivers, delete BON JOUR; and so on.

• Phantom Default Route 0.0.0.0

The issue turns out to be that the ROUTE table contains a phantom persistent default route 0.0.0.0 to one of the network interface cards. This activates the “Unidentified Network” every time the Adhoc network connection becomes active. To see this, start a Command prompt as administrator and type in C:/route print -4 and ENTER.  This will display the IPV4 route table, and any persistent routes. If you have this “Pesky Route” problem, then the solution is:

• The Solution:

A.) Go to the Windows Command Screen as Administrator(Start/All Programs/Accessories/Command Prompt/R-Click & RunAsAdministrater) and remove all default routes by entering: C:/ROUTE DELETE 0.0.0.0, ENTER.

This removes the default routes from all network interfaces. You may then reapply the  default routes to your interfaces (Do not use the address of the network adapter as the default). Who knows why Microsoft decided to make the default routes 0.0.0.0 persist in the routing table instead of just being bound to the network adapter? The network stack used by XP, 2000, 2003 systems do not have this problem.

B.) Go back to a command prompt as ADMIN and type:  netsh winsock reset – and the job is done.  I am indebted to techdummy101 over at Untangle for the clues to this simple solution.