Current situation: Just installed TomSparkBox on a fresh windows 11 install. And followed the install steps from his yt video, programmed the vpn and want to add an indexer inside Prowlarr. But when I click on Prowlarr it doesn't open the app. Can someone help me out? I'm a noob when it comes to IT... My question: I can't open prowlarr via localhost:8181 SparkBox AI replied: localhost only means the device you’re currently using. It won’t reach the NAS from your laptop/phone. Open: text http://<NAS-IP:8181 Use http, not https. For example, if the NAS is 192.168.1.50: text http://192.168.1.50:8181 On this box, Prowlarr’s port 8181 is correctly published through sb-gluetun. Its own container listens internally on 9696, which is normal. If you don’t know the NAS IP, run this on the SparkBox host: bash hostname -I Use the LAN address it returns, usually the 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x one. What I still need help with: (describe what didn't work or what's still broken)
8 replies
Chris wrote:
Hi niels — the earlier address is right when the browser is on a laptop or phone: Prowlarr is available at http://YOURSERVER:8181, not its internal 9696 port. What appears after you open that exact address—an error page, a timeout, or a sign-in screen? Please share the wording only, not any password or key, and I can narrow it down.
niels wrote:
It gives me this message: ERRCONNECTIONTIMEDOUT
Chris wrote:
Because SparkBox is installed on this Windows PC, use the local Windows-to-WSL connection instead. In your browser: Address bar → type → press Enter. The earlier server-address route is for a different laptop or phone; this timeout is the Windows/WSL networking quirk, not a Prowlarr setup step.
niels wrote:
Just tried on another pc and now get this message: ERRCONNECTIONREFUSED. Both pc's are on the same LAN network inside my home.
Chris wrote:
That refusal is expected on the second PC: Windows keeps SparkBox’s WSL network private by default. On the Windows PC where SparkBox is installed, open SparkBox dashboard → Settings → Network → click “Fix it with the Windows guide.” Follow that guide to make the apps reachable from the other PC; it is the right path for this Windows setup.
niels wrote:
I'm sorry but I don't see the “Fix it with the Windows guide.” button inside the network settings from sparkbox dashboard.
Chris wrote:
You’re right — that button isn’t on the dashboard you have. I’ve logged this and our team is investigating. A person from our team will finish this here; I’ll check the Windows setup route so the next instruction matches your version.
Chris wrote:
Update, niels - and sorry again for pointing you at a button that turned out not to be on your dashboard version. The actual cause was Windows/WSL2's mirrored-networking mode blocking the loopback path to some apps, not a Prowlarr issue. You already found and shared the fix in 44133 and your private ticket: disabling networkingMode=mirrored in .wslconfig. Heads-up on the trade-off: that also makes the WSL address reachable only from this PC, not other devices on your LAN. If you need Prowlarr reachable from elsewhere, the alternative is a Hyper-V firewall rule instead of switching modes: Set-NetFirewallHyperVVMSetting -Name '{40E0AC32-46A5-438A-A0B2-2B479E8F2E90}' -DefaultInboundAction Allow wsl --shutdown