WesPenner Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 Hi all, I purchased Home Designer about 2 years ago. It has worked fine until about 2 months ago. Now it is asking me to activate with my product key. When I enter the product key and click "Activate" it says that the "data received from the activation server is invalid". see attached picture. Chief support has told me to disable firewall and antivirus, which I did. This made no difference. I am using Norton Antivirus. Must I go all the way and uninstall the antivirus? Or what other problem could there be? Thanks Wesley Penner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barthmv Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 if your screen shot is showing what you are doing then it looks like you are trying to activate with a new key. Try to activate with the current key. I also have Norton and have never had a problem with activating my software. I've never had to disable the antivirus and firewall. Double check to make sure you are using your correct key (current key) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WesPenner Posted April 29, 2020 Author Share Posted April 29, 2020 You mean that I should check the "Activate with current key" option? It gives the same results. I also copied the key from my ChiefArchetect digital locker to try the new key option. They both give the same results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barthmv Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 don't know what is going on. I would contact support again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solver Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 I'd start by uninstalling the program using a program like Revo Uninstaller (for Windows). Then install and try the activation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WesPenner Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share Posted April 30, 2020 18 hours ago, solver said: I'd start by uninstalling the program using a program like Revo Uninstaller (for Windows). Then install and try the activation. Ok the uninstall went fine. I removed all of the extra system registries and files with the utility which you suggested. The result is the same. The only suggestion that tech support gives is this page: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/access-endpoints.html?version=21 I am not sure how to implement what is on this page. It mentions giving acces to port 443 (https) and port 80 (http). Those are common ports. Why would I have to explicitly allow access? It also mentions whitelisting certain domains. Where do I go to do this? In my firewall? If that was the case, couldn't I just simply disable the firewall? Disabling the firewall doesn't seem to do any good. This reply from tech support came on April 24. They do not seem to want to reply any more. Thanks for all of your help so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WesPenner Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share Posted April 30, 2020 Update: -Uninstalled again with Revo Uninstaller and deleted all registries and files. -Turned off firewall in router -Restarted computer -Disabled Norton Firewall -Disabled Norton Auto-protect -Downloaded a fresh installation file -Installed again -copied Product Key from Digital Locker Same results. (see attached image in previous message) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solver Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 Download and install the trial of Suite 2021 and see if it will activate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WesPenner Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share Posted April 30, 2020 That throws the same error. So ... that means that the problem is with my computer or network or ... ? How would I go about whitelisting the right sites? or does it make a difference that I am in West Africa right now? Are there some location restrictions on the activation server? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solver Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 53 minutes ago, WesPenner said: in West Africa right now? Did you tell Chief that? Maybe a VPN (virtual private network)? It could look like you are in the USA or whatever country you are from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WesPenner Posted May 1, 2020 Author Share Posted May 1, 2020 15 hours ago, solver said: Did you tell Chief that? I just did now. I will see what they respond to that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WesPenner Posted May 1, 2020 Author Share Posted May 1, 2020 Ok, I have finally found the problem. I have some kind of program that uses either VPN or Proxy (I don't understand it) controlling all of my web access. When I disabled this program, the activation worked like a charm. Thanks again for your help. I see that Chief Architect forum has caring people just like the Softplan forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now