Public or private - what am I supposed to put for my network and when a new game asks?

[OzzyOscy]

I never really understood it that much, not helped by the names, and particularly with the latter.

1) My network

Private refers to the private network, which actually means anything on that network can share files. Public actually means for use on public networks (e.g. a library) and your PC is hidden (not public).

Since I don't have another PC and don't need to share files anyway, I've set my network to public, so my PC is hidden in the presumably unlikely event someone Matrix-y hacked my network. Is that ok?

2) Game requests

Often when starting a game with multiplayer, a window will come up asking to allow it through public, private, both or neither. It never seemed to make a difference what I picked. Does it even matter?

What am I even supposed to choose when public means private and private means public for my network but probably not here?

 

[OzzyOscy]

Yeah i'm stumped too.

 

[OzzyOscy]

What’s the Difference Between Private and Public Networks in Windows? - How-To Geek

As you're at home, I'd set it to Private, unless you don't happen to trust your own network.

Is there a reason to or not to? Could someone find their way into it and then, as they can now share files, do naughty things?

Since I'll never use this online sharing feature, would that make 'public' the safer choice, on the minute chance someone were to do the above?

 

[OzzyOscy]

Wrong way round. If you enable Public, that is you saying it's ok to allow things on a public network to access this program on my PC. If you enable Private, only things on your Private network can access it.

Your home network should be considered Private.

So whenever a game asks, does it even matter?