localhost and 127.0.0.1 working but not ip address in wsl windows 10
Solution 1:
The core issue here is that WSL2 operates in a Hyper-V VM with its own virtual NIC, running NAT'd behind the Windows host. WSL1, on the other hand, ran bridged with the Windows NIC.
On localhost, Windows does seem to do an automatic mapping, but for the host IP address (and thus, on the local network), it does not.
You'll find a lot of information on this particular topic on this Github thread, along with several workarounds:
Option 1: WSL1
First, and the simplest, is to use WSL1 if you can for this particular application. You can convert the WSL2 instance to WSL1 by either doing (from PowerShell) a wsl --set-version <distroname> 1 or by cloning the existing with a wsl --export <distroname> <archivename>.tar and then wsl --import <distroname> <installlocation) <archivename>.tar. I prefer cloning since it gives you a backup.
Option 2: Windows port forwarding using netsh
Port forward under Windows using netsh per this comment on that thread. Note that the virtual NIC for the WSL2 instance gets a new address on each reboot, so you'll have to either repeat the netsh command on each reboot or set it up in a script as described and set it to run on each boot via Task Manager. Note also that you'll need ot modify Windows firewall rules.
Option 3: Port forward through WSL1 with socat
- Set up a basic WSL1 instance alongside your WSL2 instance
- Install
socaton both - From the WSL1 instance, run
socat -d -d TCP-LISTEN:3000,reuseaddr,fork EXEC:'wsl.exe -d <WSL2DistroName> "socat -d -d TCP-CONNECT:127.0.0.1:3000 -"', making sure to replace with the correct name (without brackets).
That will basically port forward anything on port 3000 on WSL1 to 3000 on WSL2, and since WSL1 runs "bridged" anyway, connections to port 3000 on the Windows host are going to go through that route as well.
This has the advantage over the netsh option of not needing to worry about the WSL2 IP changing on each boot, since it works over stdout of the wsl.exe command.
Option 4: Bridge Mode
If you are running on Windows 10 Pro or higher, there are instructions in that thread on how to run the WSL2 NIC in bridge mode. I've never gone this route, since I've been able to use the other three methods.