WSL 2 Being Blocked?

After upgrading Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) version 1 to version 2 the networking stack is having serious issues. I’ve read a lot of posts saying that it could be the 3rd party firewall. I’m not getting DHCP or anything else. It does behave as though a firewall is blocking something.

Any thoughts on how to check and ensure wsl.exe and other supporting files are allowed through glasswire?

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I’m sorry to hear you’re having that issue.

I can only say that I haven’t seen any other reports of this in the forum, or at our helpdesk. I can also say that maybe they are talking about a hardware firewall? The reason I think that is because we use the Windows Firewall API for blocking and the nice thing about that API is that it doesn’t normally cause issues with other parts of Windows.

This was the only other item I saw in the forum on WSL being blocked.
hxxps://forum.glasswire.com/t/glasswire-blocks-linux-subsystem-for-windows-10-solved/3135/21

I see reference to a new rule being added here:
hxxps://visualgdb.com/documentation/wsl2/

This is the official troubleshooting guide and docs.
hxxps://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/troubleshooting

They specifically call out 3rd party firewalls.

The issue with the Linux Subsystem and the Windows Firewall API was fixed in 2018.

We don’t use a third party firewall. We use Microsoft’s own Windows Firewall API. The apps they list there do use their own firewall though. Do you use any of those apps?

If you uninstall GlassWire does it solve the issue or does it make no difference for you?

Thanks for helping Ken.

I do not use any of the apps they are referring to.

I’ll try the uninstall to see if it makes a difference.

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@bmarkus

I hope you will use GlassWire again, I only recommended the uninstall to rule us out as the issue.

You don’t have to worry on that. GlassWire is currently one of the best firewalls for Windows. I do plan on re-installing it.

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