It's heavy-handed DRM that causes most of my problems/hassles. Waves, iLok, and XLN Installer being prime examples. That's why I've given them so little of my money.
 
I got this prize for trying to demo a newly downloaded instrument recently:
 

double

Here's an odd one. Last week I had to replace my motherboard as  the DIMM slots were starting to fail. I found the exact make and model on eBay (it's a 5 year old board). Not shockingly I had to reactivate Windows and my Arturia and KORG stuff, no big deal. However Addictive Drums and even Addictive Keys worked fine right away didn't have to reauthorize at all. Yet poor Craig is having all these issues.
 
 

Thanks. I'm right there with you on it being a port block. I'm guessing it's a secure https on 443 or 1443 but I'm not sure how far in the weeds the OP is willing to go. I'm willing to see this through to resolution but I get the feeling he's had enough and I can't blame him. If I had my hands on his network it would be solved by now but trying to talk him through it a couple steps a day is really inefficient.

Edit: This was supposed to be a reply to Husker's comment but for some reason I screwed it up. Also, I saw Abacab's post after this and his host names are completely different from the one I obtained yesterday. I'm wondering if there is a redirect based on your region. Mine had .dfw in the url which I assume is Dallas-Fort Worth. This makes sense since I am in Houston but the domain is completely different. You shouldn't have to have a networking degree to authorize software you have bought and paid for.

Well, let's hope something good will come out of it. Like maybe this thread will be popular enough that when people search for XLN Audio or Addictive Drums or AD2, this thread will rank high enough to motivate XLN Audio to move to a more user-friendly DRM system. XLN Installer blows.

dnelson1971
Thanks. I'm right there with you on it being a port block. I'm guessing it's a secure https on 443 or 1443 but I'm not sure how far in the weeds the OP is willing to go. I'm willing to see this through to resolution but I get the feeling he's had enough and I can't blame him. If I had my hands on his network it would be solved by now but trying to talk him through it a couple steps a day is really inefficient.

Edit: This was supposed to be a reply to Husker's comment but for some reason I screwed it up. Also, I saw Abacab's post after this and his host names are completely different from the one I obtained yesterday. I'm wondering if there is a redirect based on your region. Mine had .dfw in the url which I assume is Dallas-Fort Worth. This makes sense since I am in Houston but the domain is completely different. You shouldn't have to have a networking degree to authorize software you have bought and paid for.

 
I will try the additional steps even though frankly I would be doing it blind. I am hoping that XLN will come up with some miracle cure but I will try the Google stuff and all that. However I have to lay off for now as I am getting a book draft to a publisher and have another deadline that falls due Tuesday, then I need to go away for Thanksgiving.
 
I truly appreciate everyone's suggestions. I'm sure one of them will work at some point. If XLN comes up with a solution I will post it here for the benefit of others.

Anderton
I will try the additional steps even though frankly I would be doing it blind. I am hoping that XLN will come up with some miracle cure but I will try the Google stuff and all that. However I have to lay off for now as I am getting a book draft to a publisher and have another deadline that falls due Tuesday, then I need to go away for Thanksgiving.
 
I truly appreciate everyone's suggestions. I'm sure one of them will work at some point. If XLN comes up with a solution I will post it here for the benefit of others.

@Anderton - I completely understand. Please don't think my last comment was in any way a dig at you. I'm frustrated right along with you. Us IT guys can't ever leave a challenge unresolved though lol. To be honest, the very first thing the support crew should have asked for was the installer logs. It seems that they didn't and that sort of lackadaisical vendor support is unacceptable to me. I had to dig around quite a bit to even discover that logging for the installer was accessible from the user end.

I just bought Sonar Friday but I have had Addictive Keys for awhile and before this I would have recommended XLN as a top-notch company. I think the quality of their instruments is outstanding and the CPU efficiency for me is second to none. If I was having your problems though, I would think they were the worst company on earth.

The reason I was drawn to this thread is that I was trying to research Sonar as thoroughly as possible before I bought it. I came across this forum and saw your sticky thread on user tips. I read about 10 or 12 of them and there is A WHOLE BUNCH of good stuff in there. I particularly loved the harmonica article. I am not a harmonica player by any stretch of the imagination but I like to dabble in any instrument I can get my hands on and this gave me a whole new perspective on my set of cheap blues harps.

Anyway, I hope you get this resolved one way or another. It will probably be a disappointment considering how much time you already have invested but for me it's just the principle of the thing at this point. I will be happy to help in any way I can and I intend to read all of your excellent articles in the mean time.

dnelson1971
To be honest, the very first thing the support crew should have asked for was the installer logs.

 
They did, and made a suggestion based on what they saw...which was basically to eliminate everything and try again. 

Anyway, I hope you get this resolved one way or another. It will probably be a disappointment considering how much time you already have invested but for me it's just the principle of the thing at this point. I will be happy to help in any way I can and I intend to read all of your excellent articles in the mean time.

Thanks! The REALLY frustrating part is that except for a couple Windows glitches in the past few months that were fixed fairly expeditiously, the music and video part of this system has been running perfectly. I've been extremely productive because of that. The main reason for wanting to get AD2 working was screen shots for my SONAR column in Sound on Sound magazine; I felt if I was going to include a drum module, it should be the one in SONAR. But, I can always just postpone the column, or use BFD or Battery or whatever.
 
But like you, for me it's become the principle of the thing...I want it to work, but also, someone else somewhere might encounter the same problem and the solution will help them. I generally hear good things about XLN support, maybe they've just met their match with some strange system-specific issue.

Well this thread has been viewed over 3,000+ times.  If you type "XLN Authorization Problem" into a Google search box, it is now the #2 search result returned.
 
So if XLN is paying any attention, they may want to expedite a fix ASAP.
 
Like preferably BEFORE Black Friday, LOL!!!

I agree abacab, XLN should be all over this situation. Really makes them look bad the longer it goes on.