Author Topic: Unable to register key  (Read 1812 times)

One of my kids asked to register for the retail version after playing the demo for a few days.

Paid using PayPal, received key promptly. I immediately tried to add key using cut-and-paste from the mail. I don't believe thre is any chance someone could have hi-jacked the key in the short space of time between it being registered

I get a "Full Version Unlocked" message very quickly, but soon after that, get a "Invalid Key" message, with another message in a box at the bottom of the main window saying "Authentication FAILED: IP address unknown". I have retried several times both using cut-and-paste, and typing the key in by hand, and get the same results all the time.

The machine in question is running XP Home SP2 with fixes downloaded about two weeks ago (I know, I've been lax) with the XP firewall disabled, behind a Linux based firewall, double NAT'd (firewall and ADSL router). My ISP uses DHCP, and I periodically (every week or two) get a new IP address.

Is it possible that I currently have a blacklisted IP address?

I have tried going through the FAQs and the forums, and although I have seen people with similar problems, I have not yet seen a good answer.  Very often, the people get flamed off the forums by abuse about grammar or spelling.

Could someone with knowlege please decode the error, and give me some hints? I must admit that I have enough problems of my own, without having to field the kids problems.

Thanks.

This sounds like a problem with the distribution service, you might have been given an already used key by mistake, Badspot should help you out with that.

I'm not sure how the server handles IP changes.It might be that your IP changed, and when you try to use the key, it does not match with the IP you first put in, causing the Authenication to fail. My suggestion is to try it on another computer if you have one, it might just be some strange problem with the computer you are using. Also, how secure is your E-mail, is there any chance someone else could of found the key, even in the short amount of time? Also make sure you are not doing anything that could corrupt the Key.Dat file in the blockland directory. I'm  not what might cause corruption of the key, but if it is some how getting corrupt, authenication will fail.

« Last Edit: April 09, 2007, 08:33:46 AM by Grimreaperx15 »

Its not ip changes. my ip changes daily

Try typing the key manually if you haven't already.

it cant be key already registered because once i gave my key to my bro and we had same key at the same time

Don't copy and paste. -.-

If you STILL fail so much PM Badspot.  If that fails, then you fail.


User was banned for this post
« Last Edit: April 09, 2007, 01:53:31 PM by Badspot »

Badspot

  • Administrator
Hey this is a first.  The master server is web based, and the "Authentication FAILED: IP address unknown" error is shown when it can't determine your IP address through either REMOTE_ADDR or HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR header variables.  It's possible that these are blocked somehow by your firewall or ISP, or that there is some value for them that I did not account for. 

I will send you a Private Message with a link that will help me track down the problem. 

OK, I got it working, but it's a funny, and probably my fault. Let me explain, although it could take a while.

I set the system up with NTFS and non-admin accounts for the kids. I then have an admin account that does not appear on the XP login screen. I get the kids to install and run games using "Run As" on the RH button menu.

This offers a small amount of protection from things the kids run (mainly web and mail) as most of the time they are not running as admin (I'm sure that if they worked it out, they would realise that they can run *ANYTHING* as an admin account) but it stops in-advertent damage.

They installed blockland like this, and the demo worked fine.

However, when trying to register the authorization code when running like this, we get the error originally described. When I actually ran blockland from a logged in real admin account, it worked fine, and once registered, works from the "Run As" account.

I guess there must be something I do not understand about the way XP works. I'm sure that UNIX (my world) inheritance would allow sub-processes to inherit all credentials.

Sorry if I wasted peoples time. I don't know whether it is worth leaving this up, as I'm not sure whether it will be of any use to anyone else. What I wish is that Microsoft's security model worked well enough so that we did not have to run games from administration accounts, so we are not required to use such obscure methods to try to keep our systems safe.

Thank you for all of the advice, especially the personal response from Badspot. My kids are now happy.