Army Builder license error.

[Ghazkhull]

Hello. I have a copy of AB that I purchased online. Here is a copy of the confirmation email:

Thank you for placing your order with Lone Wolf Development!

This is your receipt for the online order you completed. The specifics of your order are outlined below.

Order#: 22706 (Please reference this number in all inquiries)
Date: 2007/03/10
Amount: US $39.99
Charged To: Visa (ending in **edited**)
Authorization Code: 010469

The following products have been purchased:

ITEM DESCRIPTION QTY UNIT $ EXT $

LWD-003E Army Builder License w/ One Year Updates 1 39.99 39.99

Total: US$ 39.99

Today, I downloaded a new file via the program's built in search feature. I saw what I thought was a newer version of AB v3 (which I was using), Army Builder (V3.1c), and I figured it was an update. A patch. So I downloaded it and imported it into my existing AB program.

Now the program will only run in Demo mode. I went through the License Activation steps three or four times to no avail. Every time I start a new list or open a saved one, I'm only allowed three unit choices.

The error message I keep getting upon entering the License info is:

Error During License Processing

The license number you specified cannot be reassigned at this time. Licenses can be assigned subject to the terms set forth in the license agreement when you purchased the product.

Specifically, licenses cannot be reassigned for 120 days after they are initially issued. Once reassigned the first time, licenses cannot be again reassigned for another 120 days. The 120-day interval prevails after that.

For further details on Army Builder licenses, please consult the Lone Wolf Development website at www.wolflair.com. If you wish to request having the waiting period waived for your license, please contact Lone Wolf Devolpment at support@wolflair.com for assistance. Be sure to provide your name and license number, along with an explanation of your circumstances and a justification for your request.

As you can see above, my purchase date was March 10th of 2007. That was well in excess of 120 days ago. Assuming, that is, that I have understood the error message correctly. I must admit, the whole message does not really make any sense to me at all.

Is there a way to fix this other than a re-install?

**Update**
I went ahead and uninstalled then re-installed. Still getting the same error.


Thank you,
Ghazkhull

 

[rob]

Army Builder subscription error.

At 12:09 AM 11/24/2007, you wrote:

Today, I downloaded a new file via the program's built in search feature. I saw a newer version of AB, Army Builder (V3.1c), and I figured it was an update. A patch. So I downloaded it and imported it into my existing AB program.

Now the program will only run in Demo mode. I went through the License Activation steps three or four times to no avail. Every time I start a new list or open a saved one, I'm only allowed three unit choices.

Is there a way to fix this other than a re-install?

I just checked everything on the server and there are no problems with your license. I assume that the license activation process is saying that it was successful, else you'd be telling us what the error message is. Correct?

Assuming that's the case, the problem is almost certainly a security tool blocking AB's access to the internet. Some tools "pretend" they access the internet instead of failing properly. As a result, AB thinks the retrieval was successful when it actually was blocked. So AB reports success incorrectly. One of the common tools with this "feature" is Norton.

You'll need to re-configure the security tool(s) to allow AB to get through to the internet. If you can't figure it out, use the "manual" license activation process instead. This will let you use your web browser for internet access, eliminating the need for AB to gain internet access.

 

[Ghazkhull]

Thank you for your reply, Rob. Unfortunately, you missed the nail this time.
It looks like you only read part of my post, then diagnosed an non-existent problem. In fact, when you quoted me, you quoted everything but my error message info.
I detailed the whole issue as best I could, with all the information I thought would be pertinent to my issue.

If you re-read my post (specifically the 2nd quote), you will see that I included the error message. Also, there are no security tools in place on my PC. No anti-virus, no firewall, etc. It can't be that.
As far as the pseudo-internet access you mentioned, it is incorrect. I was able to connect via AB because, as I mentioned in the original post, I downloaded the Army Builder (v3.1c) data file using the tool within AB.

I also tried the manual update on your forums already. Multiple times. I did the walkthrough inside AB to create the uploadable file. I then went to your www.lonewolfdevel.com site and logged in using my license number and email address. I then went to the manual instal and uploaded the ABinfo.lic file from my local AB folder, just like I was prompted. I received the following error:

The license number you specified cannot be reassigned at this time. Licenses can be re-assigned subject to the terms set forth in the license agreement when you purchased the product. You can review license terms and conditions on this website.

Thank you again for your reply. I certainly hope we can work this out soon. Not being able to use AB is killing me!


Thank you,
Ghazkhull

 

[rob]

At 12:28 PM 11/27/2007, you wrote:

If you re-read my post (specifically the 2nd quote), you will see that I included the error message.

I did see the error. You're stuck in demo mode, even after running the license wizard. So I assumed that the license activation wizard was telling you that it was successful, else that process would have been reporting an error. And I figured you would have reported any such error.

Also, there are no security tools in place on my PC. No anti-virus, no firewall, etc. It can't be that.

Hmmm.

I also tried the manual update on your forums already. Multiple times. I did the walkthrough inside AB to create the uploadable file. I then went to your www.lonewolfdevel.com site and logged in using my license number and email address. I then went to the manual instal and uploaded the ABinfo.lic file from my local AB folder, just like I was prompted. I received the following error:
Manual Product Licensing page wrote:
The license number you specified cannot be reassigned at this time. Licenses can be re-assigned subject to the terms set forth in the license agreement when you purchased the product. You can review license terms and conditions on this website.

Since you're getting this message when trying to activate manually, you should also be getting this message when activating via the normal wizard. If you're not getting this error, it means something is blocking AB's access to the internet. Since you didn't mention this error until trying the manual method, I have to assume AB said it was successful. That means something is pretending to access the internet and returning as if it was successful.

AB uses the standard, built-in mechanisms of Windows for internet access. These are the same mechanisms that are regularly intercepted by security tools, and some of those tools (like Norton) pretend to be successful and confuse AB. In the past, this type of problem has always been solved by re-configuring a security tool of some sort.

Since you don't have any such tools on your system, I'm at a complete loss for what could be going wrong. Based on the symptoms you've reported, something is blocking AB's access to the internet. However, I have no idea what it could be.

I've modified your license on our end to eliminate the remaining waiting period. The manual activation process should now work for you, which will at least get you running again. But this doesn't solve the mystery of why AB isn't getting through to the internet.

If a normal error is occurring, AB should report an error. So that means something is pretending to access the internet and returning bogus information. The only thing that can do that is a security tool. Are you sure that you don't have Windows Firewall active? I'm pretty sure that it starts out "on" by default, so you'd have to manually turn it off.

Yes, I'm grasping at straws here. :-( The symptoms don't make any sense unless there is a security tool interfering. I'll ask Colen to take a look at this and see if he can come up with any ideas. In the meantime, please double-check Windows Firewall and re-verify that no other security tools are active. I'll scratch my head on this and see if I can come up with any other ideas.

 

[Ghazkhull]

Whatever you did, it worked! Many thanks.
I will just avoid downloading and installing anything other than Data Files from now on. That is, until I need to re-up next year.


Thanks again!
-Ghazkhull