Solved WSL for Linux with DNS resolve

My little Bro wants to play with Linux. I installed WSL but I do not have a DNS resolution. When I try to ping google for ex, it simply won't work.
He is on a local account. I checked on my account with admin rights and could not get DNS resolution either.
I tried in the firewall to untick the protected network for wsl but to no avail. Plus after reboot it comes back as protected.
I wanted to check the logs in windows firewall but was not allowed to open the file. My account is the admin. I guess 2 problems in one. Firewall log file is not encrypted and my account has full priviliges. Any help is much appreciated for my little Bro to learn Linux :)

Can you ping something by it's IP address?
For example, ping 8.8.8.8

On the Linux WSL host, cat /etc/resolv.conf and let me know if you see something like this

On the windows side, if you run ipconfig, you should see this same IP.

Yes I can ping google DNS.. 8.8.8.8


# generateResolvConf = false
nameserver 172.18.16.1

Ethernet adapter vEthernet (WSL):

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 172.18.16.1
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.240.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

My little Bro telling me when he is trying to update for ex Ubuntu "sudo apt update" its not working.
Err:2 Index of /ubuntu focal-security InRelease
Temporary failure resolving 'security.ubuntu.com'

When I try DNS lookup for google.com
#dig google.com
I get " connection timed out; no servers could be reached"

I thought the issue with updating could be linked to a DNS issue ?

Having said that the ping working, I am not sure now.

Ok solve the issue..
Added nameserver 8.8.8.8 and now the connection is going through. Thanks for your help that gave me the idea

incedis said:

Ok solve the issue..
Added nameserver 8.8.8.8 and now the connection is going through. Thanks for your help that gave me the idea

Click to expand...

A better idea (IMO only though) is to create a VM ( Virtual Machine) for him - so if it breaks won't hose up your main machine and you / he can run the entire thing from an external device. Plenty of Live distros out there - UBUNTU and Mint are probably the easiest to start with.

WSL works fine but I wouldn't suggest it's the place for Linux Newbies to start with, and it requires some resources on the Windows machine too.

VMWare / VBOX have good VM programs that can run easily on a Windows Host. Free also for domestic / non commercial users.

Cheers
jimbo

THought about it but he is on a local account which limits a lot. It limits a lot because he is 12 but he is already hacking. Also he is a lot smarter than I am regarding IT. Local Accounts would mean, me having to do a lot of work for him in order for my little Bro to expand. In short, I put limits but he has no limits. He is into IT, I am not :)..
I think I am about to give him my laptop entirely and probably move to MAC. WIn 11 has been very much a nightmare since day one and I get tired spending too much time looking for workaround/solutions to have my laptop simple works.