Enable WSL2 Mirrored Networking on Windows 11

This guide configures WSL2 to use mirrored networking mode, so Linux inside WSL can access Windows-hosted services through localhost.

Example use case: curl from WSL2 Ubuntu to reach Ollama running on Windows:

curl http://localhost:11434/api/tags

Requirements

• Windows 11 22H2 or newer
• WSL2
• Recent WSL version

Check your WSL version:

wsl --version

Update WSL if needed:

wsl --update

1. Open .wslconfig

In PowerShell:

notepad $env:USERPROFILE\.wslconfig

If the file does not exist, Notepad will ask to create it.

2. Enable mirrored networking

Add this:

[wsl2]
networkingMode=mirrored
localhostForwarding=true

Optional, useful if you use VPNs or corporate networks:

[wsl2]
networkingMode=mirrored
localhostForwarding=true
dnsTunneling=true
autoProxy=true

3. Restart WSL

Close your WSL terminals, then run in PowerShell:

wsl --shutdown

Start your WSL distro again.

4. Test localhost access

If a Windows app is listening on port 11434, test from WSL:

curl http://localhost:11434/api/tags

For Ollama specifically:

export OLLAMA_HOST="http://localhost:11434"
curl "$OLLAMA_HOST/api/tags"

To persist this for future shells:

echo 'export OLLAMA_HOST="http://localhost:11434"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

5. Troubleshooting

Check if WSL is still using NAT-style networking:

ip route

If localhost does not work, restart WSL again:

wsl --shutdown

Then reopen WSL.

If a Windows service still cannot be reached, check whether the Windows app is listening only on 127.0.0.1 or on all interfaces:

netstat -ano | findstr :11434

For Ollama, make sure it is reachable from Windows first:

curl.exe http://127.0.0.1:11434/api/tags

References

• Microsoft WSL networking docs: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/networking
• Microsoft WSL config docs: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl-config