One of the more common issues we have to deal with in support is a connection issue which will prevent someone from being able to login to the software (almost any software) and would also prevent the software from working altogether had the user been able to login.
There are a couple of the more common issues which could create login problems but below is a collection of 5 things that could create a roadblock preventing you from loading our software and much more other software. In the case of our software the problems are due to something either blocking or interfering with the login / update request.
The Cause / Solution pairs below are listed in order of most likely to least likely
Cause 1: Bad proxy or incorrect proxy setup in Windows Connection Settings
Solution 1: Remove your proxy settings in your Windows Connection Settings. There are lots of guides on how to do this in your version of Windows, simply search “remove proxy in Windows X” where the X is your version of Windows.
Cause 2: Anti-Virus or Security Software Blocking
Solution 2: This is becoming less and less common for AV software to falsely flag Domain Hunter Gatherer as some kind of potential problem software but it can happen from time to time and in these cases it is usually best to remove the software entirely, if it is false flagging software or interfering with login requests it will be having more of an affect on your system overall. If you are unwilling to remove the AV software to allow your computer to run as you would expect it may be best to set an exception for our software in your chosen AV software.
The process for setting an exception / adding something to the white list of an AV software changes from software to software and can change from version to version also so you may be best served searching in Google for your AV software to find a specific and up to date guide for it.
Cause 3: Windows .hosts redirect
Solution 3: This isn’t something that happens by accident, there are specific ways in which a user could edit the .hosts file and the reasons for this should be obvious to the user that changed it. The only way to fix this is to remove the erroneous entries in the .hosts file to redirect the login requests, luckily it is quick and easy to do.
There is quite an in depth guide on how to do this at this link and you should be back up and running again in no time.
Cause 4: VPN Software
Solution 4: A VPN is essentially a proxy (or bunch of proxies) that redirects traffic through a different IP address. Occasionally the VPN software may give you a bad IP or fail to remove an IP once it is no longer in service. Most of the time this is simply fixed by loading up the VPN software and then opting to reconnect and then disconnect again. If you have already removed your VPN software you can try the solution to cause 1 or alternatively reinstall the VPN software to remove the IP settings.
Cause 5: Router Settings
Solution 6: Due to huge number of different makes and models of routers there is a huge amount of variation it is not really possible to list all of the possible causes / solutions here. Luckily this is not something that I have seen to cause any problems to any user in a number of years so it is very likely that your problem has been fixed before getting to this step.
However, if you have gotten here and your issues are not yet fixed it may be worth looking into your router. Check that your router is wired up as expected and if you know what you are doing have a look around the settings on your router. I can’t really advise to change any settings in your router unless you know exactly what the ramifications may be but there are a lot of forums out there with helpful users that may be able to guide you.
With all of that you should be back up and running with your expired domain hunting in no time.