flask application accessible with localhost, not accessible by IP

Question

I have a flask app installed on a new windows 10 virtual machine. I can access the app as localhost:8081 - I want to make this available on the network. I added the firewall rule for port 8081 on windows defender as follows:

When I try to access with IP or hostname I get ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED

I have also tried it on port 80 with same result. seems like the port is still blocked. I have nothing else running on this virtual machine. How can I fix this?

Answer 1

You will need to change security rules on both your computer and also the router. There might be some kind of security rule about how devices can communicate with each other.