WSL2 - how to make it accessible through outher machines

1) enable wildcard listening address of the app like 0.0.0.0

ss -anpst will show you the on which address/port the app is listening to.

2) use powershell to setup portproxy to forward all the outside requests to the windows machine to land in the WSL2 system:

netsh interface portproxy add v4tov4 listenport=3000 listenaddress=0.0.0.0 connectport=3000 connectaddress=localhost

listenport and listenaddress are on the Windows side.

connectport and connectaddress are on the WSL2 side.

(for a node app the listening port (connectport) is usually 3000, check you app listening port in 1)

verify with:  netsh interface portproxy show all

3) open port 3000 on the firewall with:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="WSL2 app" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=3000

verify from the windows defender firewall, advanced settings, inbound rules.

Cheers !

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About Nevyan Neykov

I do web design and development for more than 15 years. Have been working in various companies dealing mainly with PHP and JavaScript. Independently as well as in teams, I am involved in design and development of user friendly websites. Exploring the new aspects of JavaScript language such as ES6, as well as the Angular framework and how to apply them in practice. Nowadays I find dealing with Docker / Kubernetes and Linux system administration compelling. @youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC69XQPDbEpfAtO5S2-ZyNoA at udemy: https://www.udemy.com/user/nevyan-neykov/ Have a nice day !

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