~/til/making-a-wsl2-web-service-accessible-on-the-local-network

Making a WSL2 Web Service Accessible on the Local Network

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I’m running a web service inside a Docker container on WSL2 (using Arch Linux). The Docker container publishes port 80. On the Windows host, I can access the service using http://localhost, but I can’t reach it using the Windows host’s IP address from other computers on the same local network. This happens because WSL2 uses a virtual network interface, which makes things tricky. After some trial and error, I figured out how to make it work. Here’s what I did.

Steps

Create an Inbound Firewall Rule for Specific Ports

To allow traffic from other computers, I added a firewall rule on the Windows host to permit incoming connections on certain ports.

Run this command in PowerShell (as Administrator):

powershell

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "WSL2 Port Bridge" -Direction Inbound -Action Allow -Protocol TCP -LocalPort 80,443,10000,3000,5000

This rule opens ports 80, 443, 10000, 3000, and 5000 for TCP traffic.

Note: Sometimes the firewall rule doesn’t work right away. Check the Windows Defender Firewall settings to make sure it’s active. You might need to recheck it if there’s a problem.

Set Up Port Forwarding with netsh interface portproxy

WSL2 has its own IP address, separate from the Windows host. To connect the Windows host’s IP to the WSL2 service, I used the netsh interface portproxy command. This forwards traffic from the Windows host to the WSL2 instance.

Run this in PowerShell (as Administrator):

powershell

netsh interface portproxy add v4tov4 listenport=80 listenaddress=0.0.0.0 connectport=80 connectaddress=192.168.48.167
  • listenport=80: The port the Windows host listens on.
  • listenaddress=0.0.0.0: Accepts connections from any IP (like other computers on the network).
  • connectport=80: The port the WSL2 service uses.
  • connectaddress=192.168.48.167: The WSL2 IP address.

Important: Replace 192.168.48.167 with your WSL2 IP address. To find it, run ip addr inside WSL2 and look for the IP under eth0. This IP can change, so check it again if the connection stops working.

(Optional) Adjust Hyper-V Firewall Settings

WSL2 runs on Hyper-V, so I tried a command to allow inbound connections through the Hyper-V firewall. I’m not sure if this is necessary, but it might help if the service still isn’t accessible.

Run this in PowerShell (as Administrator):

powershell

Set-NetFirewallHyperVVMSetting -Name '{40E0AC32-46A5-438A-A0B2-2B479E8F2E90}' -DefaultInboundAction Allow

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