Home network public or private which is best?

[RaninCT]

Which network setting provides the best protection of my home network. Setting it to private or public. I have been using private thinking it offered the best security than I watched a YouTube video that now has me completely confused. The video implied setting it to public makes it more secure.
Any comments will be appreciated

 

[TheDevopsGuy]

I believe they're implemented as follows to simply summarize

Public protects your device from being identifiable on the network, Imagine your pc is in a public space do you really want people to find your device easily, potentially attacking your device or accessing features of it?

Home/Private:This device is used on your personal home network therefor you trust all the devices present in it as such you allow devices to be able to take advantage of features such as Mapping drives or creating Homegroups.

Tbh if you're not going to make use of any features offered in the Home network it is not worth considering and you should always opt for the Public option, as soon as you wish to make use of the features of Private you can switch this yourself from your control panel options.

 

[Gabriel Pike]

What TechGamer said above is correct. One thing to keep in mind thought is you may have to make changes to your firewall exceptions to get certain applications to work if you switch network types. If windows file and printer sharing is not being used then it is a more restricting firewall on public.

 

[DelJo63]

Yes the terms Public vs Private are confusion as the point of view is not self-evident. They are defined by the network to which your system is connected:

• Public means something like a host spot or hotel internet service
• Private means YOU have your own ISP, own the router and and only your devices are connected to it.

Private networks can safely enable print/file sharing and thus the firewall is configured to allow it.

Public networks however are dangerous and you don't want anyone accessible your data.

 

[RaninCT]

Thank you to everyone for the help you’ve all given me. You have answered my question

 

[fixotip]

Private network is good for personal use. I also use this for my pc.

 

[TECHAKHILESH]

For your home network, I would suggest that you use the private network which will protect you from another network to access your system network which can harm your personal data so for the home network its better you use the private network.

 

[DelJo63]

Point of fact; the PUBLIC setting disables all in-bound, unsolicited traffic, such as a fileshare request (or even just browsing your shares).

Both Public & Private are defined within the MS Firewall which is what you are activating with either choice.