UPnP doesn't require that different devices behave exactly the same or advertise the same features to the network. There are a wide range of things that make up the standard as UPnP covers a much wider range of devices than just routers, and so many features will be optional.

One of the common features is a way to automatically provide a URL to access or administer a network device, be it a router, IP camera, media server etc.

So yes with different routers it''s normal to have variation on whether you get an Internet Gateway Device icon or not, including even the order in which UPnP is turned on (Windows first or router first).

This is partly because the UPnP advertising is periodic and some routers let you change the interval or will have different default intervals, so the icon doesn't appear immediately anyway, especially if Windows just happened to miss the last advertisement.

E.g. I had a Netgear DG834G and with UPnP on the interval was set to 15 minutes. But I turned it off as it allowed any software on any computer on the LAN to open incoming port forwarding on demand which I did not need. Though some gamers may appreciate precisely that feature.

Note that the port forwarding was allowed irrespective of whether the gateway device icon was shown or not. UPnP can be turned off in Windows which affects only the OS Control Panel / Network Connections stuff, whereas either way any software such as games can each decide for themselves whether to send UPnP commands to the router if UPnP is turned on there.

But I feel we are getting bogged down - this icon is pretty much a cosmetic thing, having nothing to do with whether the router doing its real job. It is a fancy shortcut, that may or may not appear automatically, and may or may not feature brief statistics, but otherwise of no real importance.

I'd suggest MS added it aimed towards users coming from having the dial-up networking icons (allowing them to monitor their modem connection status) and hence provide something reassuringly familiar after upgrading to broadband (ADSL/cable) routers.

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Similarly with the question of how Windows groups network connections, network cards, and other computers in lists of network devices. It has no real bearing on security how it chooses to classify things.

The OP was concerned about exposure to the internet and the main thing that matters is what rules are being applied by the Windows firewall and then the router firewall, rather than the group name it happens to appear under.

Regarding XP it should be on SP3 and preparations in place move off it before updates stop, or virtualise it and then isolate it from other devices.

Edited by prlzx (Thu 30-May-13 22:02:35)

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In an idertical network, XP + Vista, using 2 diff routers both with UPnP ON, the 1st router resulted in an Internet Gateway on the XP and the 2nd router didn´t. With the Internet Gateway present on XP caused frequent connection problems on the Vista. When UPnP was switched OFF on the 1st router the Internet Gateway disppeared from the XP and the connection issues went away. Yet the 2nd router with UPnP ON never ever produced an Internet Gateway.

That sort of thing was happening to me with XP and Win7 - ended up with no Internet Gateway showing on XP and UPnP enabled on the TG585 v7 router for best results

In reply to a post by prlzx:

this icon is pretty much a cosmetic thing, having nothing to do with whether the router doing its real job.

It´s more than just cosmetic (& more than just an icon) when its very presence in a network causes the network to misbehave.

As I explained, it is not the presence or absence of the icon that causes the network to misbehave.

It is not the presence or absence of the icon that determines whether applications are able to control the router firewall.

Inappropriate network settings do cause a network to misbehave, whether on router, computer or something else.

But the icon itself is only a shortcut.

Edited by prlzx (Sat 01-Jun-13 00:05:53)

In reply to a post by prlzx:

As I explained, it is not the presence or absence of the icon that causes the network to misbehave.

Of course it is! The absence of an Internet Gateway (called by you an "icon" and seemingly triggered by uPnP) causes the network to behave impeccibly, while its presence causes problems in some cases. QED!

Inappropriate network settings do cause a network to misbehave, whether on router, computer or something else.

So you are blaming the user for plugging in a router and relying on its default settings? BTW: The router in question is a Netgear DG834GT, similar to the 1 you mentioned.

You also explained, I think, that uPnP was very spasmodic and variable in its implementations with it someimes generating an Internet Gateway and sometimes not within minutes. Not a very robust standard!

EDIT I am talking only about a simple 2 or 3 PC network and am not aware of trying to control router firewall or getting URLs but you are confusing this matter and myself by introducing such exotica.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Sat 01-Jun-13 22:15:10)

The reason I don't need UPnP turned on on my router is because I understand networks and firewalls well enough to configure the rules and settings myself.

That is not for me to say no-one else should use it ever.

I've explained the basics behind the part of it that relates to routers and Windows but that is only one aspect.

This is now tangential to the original post and has nothing to do with whether their computers are being desctibed as "Internet" or "Local Network".
And I'll repeat my repsonse to the OP that is very unlikely their Windows Network is sharing onto the Internet by accident as it requires specific changes both in Windows and the router.

Regarding the IGD icon you can read about that at IGDDC but in brief you can see it was was related to controlling a gatway from another computer, where gateway referred to the internet connection from a home router or Internet Connetion Sharing on another Windows PC.

The real point to take away from that is, even if you turn off / uninstall this discovery feature in Windows, hence getting rid of the shortcut, but
if you leave UPnP turned on at the router and that setting allows firewall control,
that is the feature allows capable devices and software on the network to control the router firewall. This is the case regardless, including if you have no Windows computers on the network.

The above is precisely what I meant by the icon not being the cause. It is merely how Windows XP choses to represent a shortcut to some optional services the router provides.

To avoid further duplication here anyone still curious can easily find more on what UPnP is about..

Personally I find the media discovery and sharing facilities of UPnP and DLNA more useful than the networking elements.

Edited by prlzx (Sun 02-Jun-13 01:22:37)

A few things that I would like to add is that the LAN is portrayed in an easier to understand form on a Win7 machine: in graphic representations the router (in my case a TG585 v7 with UPnP enabled) is the "Gateway" and other devices are shown on the network map once the LAN is setup correctly; all computers on the LAN have unrestricted access to the router's GUI and settings; also for a Work Group setup on Win7 I had to have "discovery" turned on