Error communicating with server

[Doughy Dave]

I have tried nothing and I am all out of ideas.

But seriously, I can't use my software because it won't connect and verify my licence on my laptop. It's a Dell XPS running Win 10 (22H2)
Does anyone have any ideas on how to solve this?

Here's a tracert.

Tracing route to store.serif.com [18.67.93.13]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     3 ms     4 ms     2 ms  192.168.129.3
  2    40 ms   115 ms    35 ms  10.111.9.188
  3   404 ms    31 ms    24 ms  10.194.121.157
  4    27 ms    31 ms    32 ms  10.194.121.173
  5     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  6     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  7    84 ms    45 ms    28 ms  61.88.33.8
  8     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  9     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 10     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 11     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 12     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 13   184 ms    31 ms    29 ms  15.230.149.1
 14   184 ms    34 ms    23 ms  server-18-67-93-13.syd62.r.cloudfront.net [18.67.93.13]

Trace complete.

 

Edited December 9, 2024 by Doughy Dave

[mopperle]

Serif uses AWS, which is extremly reliable. What you experience is usually a problem between your PC and the AWS server, like your provider, or a node inbetween etc.

Nothing where Serif has any influence.

[Doughy Dave]

Yeah okay, fair enough. I've tried using the wireless at work, from hotspotting my phone, and my home fibre and even using a VPN.

 

I'll just request a refund. No point paying for something that I can't even launch.

Edited December 9, 2024 by Doughy Dave

[walt.farrell]

On 12/9/2024 at 4:38 PM, Doughy Dave said:

Yeah okay, fair enough. I've tried using the wireless at work, from hotspotting my phone, and my home fibre and even using a VPN.

 

I'll just request a refund. No point paying for something that I can't even launch.

I think you can right-click on that dialog and get an option to provide some further diagnostic info. This (and some other possibilities) are covered in this FAQ:

 

[Doughy Dave]

On 12/11/2024 at 11:15 PM, walt.farrell said:

I think you can right-click on that dialog and get an option to provide some further diagnostic info. This (and some other possibilities) are covered in this FAQ:

 

I'm at my wits end.

I just "upgraded" this laptop to Win11 and thought that might help. Nope. I run the connection diagnostic after the failed connection to the server and see the report says 

Failure reason   : Failed to connect to affinity.api.serifservices.com port 443: Bad access

Failure reason   : Failed to connect to affinity.serif.com port 443: Bad access

Yet in powershell I can ping both those addresses perfectly. I'm no expert but thought that if I can connect via PS, why would the connection fail via the app?

 

 

[carl123]

 

[Doughy Dave]

7 hours ago, carl123 said:

 

I have been stuffing around with this for months. I have read the FAQ's. I have no proxy, no vpn, firewall turned off and as my terminal screenshot shows, I have access to the registration IP addresses.

So what now? Does someone else want to post a Microsoft Support level non solution/copy paste?