Apple Removes Network Locations Feature in macOS Ventura

[AppliedMicro]

I’m still using Catalina

..., an operating system that will become unsupported, even for security updates, within a few weeks (upon the release of macOS Ventura).

You probably have your upgrade path carved out for a timely upgrade - have you?

Actually, imagine to securely set up your home network and then go to work or use vpns: this feature is definitely what you need not to mess up things with your network settings. Unless anyone believes it’s enough to access a wifi network and be safe… no kidding!

I'm doing it every week:

Connecting my work computer to my home network (via Ethernet, but could just as well do it over WPA3 Wi-Fi), receiving an IP address through DHCP. It'll require me to unlock the encrypted boot partition and connect through VPN to the company network to access company resources.

Same at work: The laptop will automatically connect with the encrypted Wi-Fi or the Ethernet-equipped docking station, receive an IP address (I guess they're using 802.1x but would have to confirm), authenticate with the friendly-network server, automatically unlock the boot partition and provide access to company resources, without me connecting through VPN or entering credentials (except login, of course).

It all works automagically - no fiddling around with different network locations.

 

[Juanj]

Location is still here, but not in the network pane

Its now located on the  Menu

 

[adrianlondon]

Location is still here, but not in the network pane

Its now located on the  Menu

That only works if you already have more than one location defined, and it doesn't allow editing (or creating or deleting) the location info. In other words, it can only switch locations as before.

 

[cosmogfd]

Location is still here, but not in the network pane

Its now located on the  Menu

View attachment 2042819

nice!

 

[AppliedMicro]

I believe that enterprise networking should not rely on user-configurable network locations as a security measure.
A use case as a workaround for buggy application of network services order has also been mentioned, and I really don't think that justifies keeping the functionality around (if anything, Apple should address any underlying bugs with the network services order).

That said, I do appreciate that you may want to different system preferences depending on the location you (your Mac) are currently in. But these are definitely not limited to network interface and DNS server settings.

👉 If you provide a network profile management to change my profile from home to work, the coffee shop or just test networking setups/devices, I'd argue that should also include (at least) my sharing and firewall settings.

While I may be happy to share an unprotected file share to my family at home and provide AirPlay receiver services, I'm not going to do it in the coffee shop or office.

Having a more "global" selector in the start menu to choose different "locations" with different system settings...

The origins are in Mac OS Classic's Location Manager.

...strikes me as - potentially - much better and well-thought-out than what we have today.

 

[hybrid_x]

I have always used this feature since getting my first Mac laptop.

• Sometimes I need to shut WiFi off completely and go Ethernet-only.
• Sometimes I need a static IP.
• Sometimes I need to prioritize looking for a WiFi connection over Ethernet. Sometimes I need the opposite.
• Sometimes I have different firewall or DNS settings.

Not having an easy interface where I have control over these would be a major setback. I hope Apple doesn't get rid of these in the name of simplicity.

 

[David Krikava 2]

Pardon my ignorance on this matter, but how was this used? I mean you would connect to a different network depending on where you were, wouldn't you?

I use this feature quite often.
Where I work, there are different LANs/subnets with their specific routers, net masks, static IP addresses, VPN presets - and this is running on one Ethernet and/or WiFi infrastructure. It is usual in industrial networks, where separate subnets are kept isolated. Especially when you use fixed IP addresses instead of DHCP&nameservers to reach a device.
So I just pick one LAN preset (Apple called that a ‘Location’) and connect to a subnet of, say, engines control. Then I pick other preset and connect to a security cameras circuit. When I visit a customer’s factory, they have their own rules, so I pick that preset (location) which fits there - it is easier, than to fill LAN settings again and again, like people with Windows must do.
I would miss that, if I ever planned to upgrade from Catalina.

 

[alexandr]

Got it, thanks! Hopefully someone will make a third party workaround for this?

 

[alexandr]

Actually, imagine to securely set up your home network and then go to work or use vpns: this feature is definitely what you need not to mess up things with your network settings. A life saver.
Unless anyone believes it’s enough to access a wifi network and be safe… no kidding!

Hm, well I don't every assume anyone to be safe, but I use VPN at times and never noticed any issues. Nothing that renewing DHCP lease won't fix, anyway. Again — I apologized for my ignorance

 

[kinghuang]

I’m still using Catalina. How can I prioritize wired over wifi? Dragging one above the other in Settings does not work at all. Any other trick?

In Network preferences, click the three-dots thing at the bottom of the interfaces list, choose Set Service Order…, then drag the items in there.

 

[bakerzdosen]

Pardon my ignorance on this matter, but how was this used? I mean you would connect to a different network depending on where you were, wouldn't you?

I used to use it A LOT.

I traveled to different customer sites and each one had a different network layout (not offering DHCP for myriad reasons.) I'd have maybe 50 different setups.

These days I use it for each of our datacenters. It's a security feature to not provide DHCP to just anyone logging in.

 

[alexandr]

I used to use it A LOT.

I traveled to different customer sites and each one had a different network layout (not offering DHCP for myriad reasons.) I'd have maybe 50 different setups.

These days I use it for each of our datacenters. It's a security feature to not provide DHCP to just anyone logging in.

Got it. Does sound like a niche use case these days, but still.

 

[britboyj]

It's pretty niche and I think most corporate IT departments that made use of it have shifted to direct VPN apps by now since VPNs are more idiot proof.

 

[BrightDarkSky]

Please keep on locking down my machine and removing features. Honestly people can't be trusted with this stuff so just take it all out. iPads are still the future. What do you have to hide if you're trying to change your location set up? Now that is a question. Oh yeah and privacy stuff privacy stuff yada yada.

 

[mecloud]

I use this all the time, for switching between an ad-hoc network with static IP (used for MIDI-over-Wi-Fi when DJ-ing) and regular Wi-Fi use. Seems dumb to remove it.

 

[panjandrum]

You could basically have your Mac adjust your network configuration for you based on your WiFi network, e.g. automatically use a different DNS server at home vs work.

It was a niche feature for sure but I also don't see why it needs to be removed. Part of what made macOS special was a lot of these little "nice touches" that came built in to the OS.

Exactly, and it's not a 'niche' feature unless you consider Industry, Enterprise, Education, Government, Corporations, and the like to be 'niche.' It's not something an individual end-user with a personal laptop would usually use, but it's an absolutely critical function for many. This will be a feature Apple is forced to bring back if they actually remove it. Simple scenario; we use it in a school setting to allow teachers to immediately hop to an unfiltered network configuration if they find they are being blocked by our internet filter. Usually they stay on the primary setting so that they can experience filtering the same way as the students will, but it's necessary for them to be able to jump off that filter occasionally. This feature is what made that possible to do in a quick and easy way.

 

[montuori]

Location is still here, but not in the network pane

Its now located on the  Menu

Well that's awfully nice. The whole tempest went from being a minor irritation to a minor usability improvement. Thanks for the info!

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

It's actually not gone, just hidden away. Select Network in the list on the left, then on the right, at the bottom, just to the left of the question mark icon, there is an ellipsis dropdown. Click on that, and choose Set Service Order... and a dialog will come up with the Location dropdown at the top. I don't know if it is switching all of the settings that it used to, but it definitely allows you to set unique service orders by location.

Weird, when I click on Set Service Order, there's no Location dropdown. See screenshot. Is it possible this appears for you, because you upgraded from Monterey, and set locations in Monterey? (if you upgraded)

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

Location is still here, but not in the network pane

Its now located on the  Menu

View attachment 2042819

Not showing up for me. No location menu/submenu at all. Did you upgrade from Monterey and set locations in Monterey?

 

[corporategadfly]

YMMV, but I use it daily and have been for 10+ years. Had I not known about Locations all these years ago, I wouldn't have made the following automation possible.

• Laptop starts with Automatic location
• If I detect default gateway as showing that I'm connected to Work, then use scselectto choose the "Work DHCP (Airport off)" location.
  • This means that I don't have Airport on at all
    • If, for some reason, I need WiFi at work, all I have to do is to unplug the network cable and the automation detects the change.
  • Also as part of the automation, I switch default printer to the work printer using lpoptions
• If I detect default gateway as showing that I'm connected to Home, then use scselectto choose "Automatic" location
  • Airport is on
  • Also as part of the automation, I switch default printer to the home printer using lpoptions
• For anything else, leave it as "Automatic" location

 

[adrianlondon]

Not showing up for me. No location menu/submenu at all. Did you upgrade from Monterey and set locations in Monterey?

As I posted earlier, it only shows if you already have more than one location defined. Also, it's not possible to add, delete or otherwise modify the locations from that menu.

(As an aside, that menu option has been there since around Catalina - and again, only if you have multiple locations defined.)

 

[sdf]

DHCP is a small part of network configurations. Enterprise, education, government, they all need Network Locations. Moving from one network to another, where proxy configs are different, 802.1x certs are required, VLAN tagging, and many more need to be reconfigured every time you roam onto another network. This is especially needed now people are hybrid working - you'll need the VLAN and proxy configs when in the office, and off when working remotely.

Honest question: Can that be arranged through multiple instances of the port in the same configuration and failing through?

I've worked in both Enterprise and Education, but I didn't have these kinds of demands.

 

[sdf]

I’m still using Catalina. How can I prioritize wired over wifi? Dragging one above the other in Settings does not work at all. Any other trick?

That's always worked for me. I don't remember how Catalina specifically works, but have you clicked all the relevant Apply buttons on the way out? (That UI is kinda awful.)

 

[sdf]

This is demonstrably untrue given the output of iStat menus, but whatever, keep defending Apple's iOS-ification of macOS.

I'm doing it right now. It doesn't turn WiFi off, but my network activity doesn't go through it. But sure, keep using iStat as proof. 🤣

 

[panjandrum]

I'm doing it right now. It doesn't turn WiFi off, but my network activity doesn't go through it. But sure, keep using iStat as proof. 🤣

I also use the network priority method and it has always seemed to work properly in my configurations as well. It's possible however that the MacOS may try to use WiFi, even when it is manually positioned as lower priority, if it believes the WiFi connection is actually faster than the wired connection. I've never personally tested this, but it would certainly follow Apple's design philosophy of forcing unwanted behaviors that are difficult or impossible to mitigate because "We are Apple, and therefore always know best, even though you are the actual end-user."