Please read my advice on your first post: Failed to Connect

graylox

Looks like I commented on this a few years ago. ... My computer crashed in Feb last year and I lost EVERY one of my giveaways - games and other programs.

My problem started with leaving Netzero and getting a wireless DSL.

But after achieving success for a while, I was back struggling to activate again. I finally gave up.

Today, I decided to tackle it again.

I've not downloaded anything in over 18 months form GGOTD or GOTD.

I've been using FreeDownload Manager for over 3 years, and until we left netzero, never had a problem connecting or activating the giveaways. Downloaded the program using Chrome and then IE without success.

Followed all of the advice that I found ... finally reset the IE to autodetect settings ... but still nothing was working.

So I downloaded the program a third time without using FDM - just using the built in IE downloader .... and it worked.

Kind of shocked.

mack4 - this software was given away on 11/15, so unless you both downloaded and installed it then, I don't think you can do it now (if that's what you mean by getting 'activation to work.')

A free alternative is iWisoft Free Video Converter: "iWisoft Free Video Converter can fast convert videos between all popular formats like AVI, MPEG, WMV, DivX, XviD, MP4, H.264/AVC, AVCHD, FLV, MKV, RM, MOV, 3GP, and audio MP3, WMA, WAV, RA, M4A, AAC, AC3, OGG. Directly convert video for playback on your PSP, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, PS3, Xbox, Zune, Creative Zen, Archos and other digital multimedia devices. The video converter also has powerful video editing functions including crop, trim, merge, adding watermark and special effects." http://www.iwisoft.com/videoconverter/

Tried unsucessfully all day yesterday 03/12/10 to get activation to work with no sucess - I have had this on previous downloads from GAOTD but have usually given up but particually wanted this one?

I use several videoconverters and have been very pleased with Aiseesoft Total Video Converter and have not been victimized by any Aiseesoft spam, parasites or phising. Excellent quality output (particularly to format Flash H264 Video *.flv) and the converter is by far the fastest converter on the market. The crop and trim functions are intuitive and outstanding assets in the prog together with the feature of a wide range of output formats. I can from experience recommend the Aiseesoft Total Video Converter. On the other hand the Aiseesoft Free YouTube Downloader is not working at all for me. (HP Compaq 6000 Pro MT PC, Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, E7500 @ 2.93GHz.)

http://hosts-file.net/
PSH - sites engaged in Phishing http://hosts-file.net/?s=classifications

http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/aiseesoft.com
This site spams (3)
Adware, spyware, or viruses (2)
Phishing or other scams (2)

http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/aiseesoft.com

Spam, forum spammer and engaged in phisihng

next 3 check ok
http://www.unmaskparasites.com/

http://www.unmaskparasites.com/security-tools/find-hidden-links/site/?siteUrl=www.aiseesoft.com

http://www.h-online.com/nettools/tools/spam-list-query IP: 67.228.81.55

I tried to ask a question on today's d/l, but it's been sitting there for hours saying it is awaiting moderation. What's up with that?
In addition to the question I had, I REALLY wanted someone to answer Rusty #54 question which was about security on the Aiseesoft product.
Does anyone happen to know? I sure don't want anyone accessing my computer.

Hi All,

I have been a subscriber to Giveaway of the Day for some time now and have downloaded many great products with few problems. I also have and use the WOT (Web of Trust)add-on for Firefox. This add-on rates web sites relative to their trustworthiness based on reports submitted by users of the site. To date all the Giveaway of the Day sites have been rated as "very good" until Aiseesoft Total Video Converter was recommended. This products web site (Aiseesoft.com) is rated "Very Poor" in all 4 categories of Trustworthiness, Vendor Reliability, Privacy and child safety. Specifically, there have been multiple reports of spam, bad customer experiences, phishing or other scams, malicious content including viruses and hateful, violent or illegal content. I didn't download the product based on these reports so I can't say for sure if they are true but I thought I would give a heads up anyways so everyone can decide for themselves.

Regards,
Zalet51

Hi,
I have this problem of not succeeding in connecting for activation. I've discovered that is a problem with my firewall. To activate I have to diasble my Sunbelt firewall to pass the activation. Then I can reconnect it and the rest works good.
What I did NOT discovered is WHY the firewall is blocking the connection, for the only programs that are blocked for connection have nothing to do with it (not systems programs, just applications that want to check upgrades). The other are set to ask for permission, but the question is never made for GAOTD.
Cheers from Rio.

Hi, had a similar problem all day long, uninstall, reinstall , clean reg etc. finally found it was my firewall (Bullguard), told BG to check and allow, all cleared, hope this helps.

Thanks, MountainLamb. A lot of times we float solutions and never hear whether we gave good advice or not. I forgot about that setting, glad pcbn2u mentioned it. We'll probably have to remember next time someone gets stuck, as that's probably the safest setting in all versions of IE.

By the way, I checked your profile to see if you were new or a vet checking in after awhile. Did you ever finish JewelCraft? I assume you did.

I've not been able to activate ANYTHING for around 2 months - today I found this thread and used the advice of pcbn2u - it worked. I have XP, not sure which SP, and use IE8.

Well, that sounds like a good thing. I just got the Street Racer and Audio Editor, and only Street Racer lets me activate. It's an odd thing.

Actually, it seems that the activation server can't be down if the main site isn't down because the activation system is on the same www subdomain as the main site. The file server might be different because it is files.giveaway.... , so that could be down. If the site admins would let me post a link to the activation key (not useful by itself), I could describe a way to see if people can connect to the activation system.

I've been having this problem almost constantly the last three weeks or so, enough that it finally drove me to register and make this post.

I have no issues with the activating the games on the weekend. Works like a charm.

But get home from work, jump on the GAOTD, download the latest, and can't get past activation. I do see activity out, I get nothing back, and then it times out.

I see that over the years, different things have happened. If the activation server is down, isn't there a way to indicate it on the site?

Minor technical info: The Giveaway wrapper uses Internet Explorer settings to connect to GAOTD's server. If the settings under your Connection tab under Internet Options isn't correct, you'll have trouble activating. Also, as always, check your firewall. It may be set to block the Giveaway wrapper.

w8tif's question: Why not just give us the serials? Well, it's mostly a matter of choice for the developers. They may want to keep everyone in the dark so that they can't upgrade to the next version (although the conditions of GAOTD are no free upgrades, some developers don't create a special GAOTD version of their software with a special key to prevent upgrades). Also, it may be because that they don't want to overload their activation servers, if applicable. However, mainly the reason is that they don't want people to know their serial numbers.

I don't use IE in any version (nor will I!) and "Opera" has worked perfectly well in the past, but today's GOTD (Wondershare Video Converter) will not activate! After installation, and SEVERAL attempts to use the "Register" application, I keep getting "Unable to Connect" -- which is hogwash!

Why not just provide a serial number and be done with it? Right now, in my opinion, GOTD really sucks!

I have had the same problem for a few days, I tried a few tips but they didn't work. I installed (or reinstalled? can't remember) Internet Explorer 8 and it now seems to work perfectly. Obviously the link is through IE somhow and if it is corrupted it don't go.

Many thanks for a wonderful site

I was getting the same error on my XP SP2 system. Terribyte's solution also worked for me.

However...

After installation, when I ran the game, Zone Alarm Pro told me that Egyptoid wanted access to privileged resources, and could be tracking or logging keystrokes, etc. I clicked "Deny" and my system became unstable, then terminal. After shutting down and rebooting, I ran the program again, got the same message but clicked "Allow" and everything seems fine.

Any clue what this is all about? Did I just install malware?

Terribyte wrote: I found a solution that works for me :-)
I`ve open the Internet Options box under the Tools menu, and then click on lan settings in connections tab. In the lan settings box, I clicked on the top box to let IE automatically detect the correct settings.
I now can activate programs

I am on XP sp3 and Terribyte's solution worked for me. Thanks

close IE & Firefox work OK, set DNS to Auto, then go to Command Promp > " ipconfig /flushdns " you get back it flush ok.

Good day all.

Here is an odd circumstance I encountered which seems, for now, to get around the registration problems. As mentioned previously I am using Vista HP, no SP it failed miserably, on a 1.6gHz with 2G ram, TB hd, slow dialup. I do not use IE rather Firefox unlezss required, IE is version 7.

At first I thought this was a difference between a separate activation module and one built into setup (which actually seems to do nothing other than allow setup to continue) as that is when it started. Further experimentation showed no difference.

I found by the fact that the activation passed absolutely no traffic during its attempt, that it works thru the browser, not the connection. Apparently Firefox is not an acceptable browser for this process. At a later time I accidentally had IE running, some other process had initiated it unknown to me, when I again attempted activation. Mirabile Dictu it worked. Since then I have found that having IE running in the background while trying to activate allows it to function (and also kicks you into the GOTD site). So it -must- work thru IE, not the system set default browser.

Don't know how many this may help, I hope it is something taken into consideration by the GOTD developers. At least enough to make a note in the 'readme' that IE must be accessible during activation.

Cordially,

Mike

Bigun: Only the ones where the activation and install are the same. I'm sure I'm getting the same message that Paali was getting.

"Activation module failed to connect to giveawayoftheday.com Software activation is not possible at the moment. Please try again later or check your firewall settings."

That's the complete box that comes up right after clicking the setup.exe.
I haven't tried to remove realplayer or quicktime as Paali said he did, kind of dread the thought of downloading them again to reinstall.
She does download games from RealArcade and activates them with no problem, but those are paid.

Bigun
To many posts to read what the problem is,I just saw in your last post you said,"Is there any way to post a screen shot. I would like to be able to show what I am getting?".If your OS is XP use one of the many free screencapture programs.If you have Vista you should have a program called Snippets.
Snap a pic.using one of these programs and upload the pic. to a free photo sharing site such as PhotoBucket.

http://tutorials.photobucket.com/

Then post the link to the screencapture,from PhotoBucket here in this thread.

It would look like this one that I had posted some time back when I had a problem to show other members.

EXAMPLE
http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh174/scubaguy/General-Album/Capture.gif

CountryBoy: Is the problem on your Wife's computer with all activation schemes (activation: before, during, manually adding the registration information after)?

I am having several computer problems at the moment (last 2 days) so it is not fair for me to evaluate anything until it get that cleared up.

I wonder if the (my activation) problem originated in my registry and disturbed some type of identification code (Microsoft Smart Card?) and that is why the the activation server fails to identify me as illegitimate.

Is there any way to post a screen shot. I would like to be able to show what I am getting?

Just tried the wifes computer and still no luck. Mine- no problem.

CountryBoy: Let us know what you discover.

Bigun: Hehe, I've been monitoring this thread, and others, ever since I started it, in order to get a solution to the problem. So I guess it was just a coincidence that I saw it. I thought that it might be an external problem too, since I didn't do anything I could think of that would allow me to activate again. But I was assured that GOTD had not changed anything in their end.

As for trying to come up with a solution (it might be a complete shot in the dark, but perhaps worth looking into) I did install and uninstall some softeware that are internet related, in addition to cleaning up my system.
I removed Real player and quicktime player (both are used to stream media files, and might have been blocking some port. I don't think it's likely, but at least that's one thing I changed).
I also installed a software that's called Hotspot shield (http://anchorfree.com/downloads/hotspot-shield/). It's a program that creates a VPN (virtual private network) when you are online. I never run it while activating, but it does have something to do with the IP and other network configurations.
Also, I cleaned up files in my system and the registry with CCleaner and Revo Uninstaller. It might have been some old corrupt file belonging to a program that interfered.

I would never think any of these things would affect the activation, but since they are changes I did before it worked, it might be worth looking into. At least we can confirm that it does NOT help =)

Paali: I'll try the wifes computer again this afternoon after checking some more changes since hers is a constant problem.

Bigun: Mine I'm sure is a local problem since one computer activates perfectly and the other fails everytime.

Sorry CountryBoy. Glad that you checked in. Keep coming back.