Message: "Cannot connect to graphpad.com. There might be a problem with internet connectivity, a firewall or the Graphpad server. " or "Unexpected error received from graphpad.com"

View a different page for the message, "Connection problem. You are currently offline." Prism must connect to the internet at least once every 30 days to validate your license." 

These messages come up when you are using Prism for the first time (or Prism has sensed that your computer has changed), and your installation was configured for silent activation. Prism is trying to communicate with GraphPad.com to activate your license, but somehow is unable to make the connection. The messages come up for slightly different reasons:

• The first message ("Cannot connect...") comes up when the graphpad.com server is unavailable.
• The second one ("Unexpected error..") comes up when graphpad.com is available but isn't doing silent activations properly, or a proxy server intercepts the silent activation request. 

The first thing to do is just wait a while and try again. Maybe there is a temporary glitch in your internet connection or the GraphPad server.

After that, check with your IT people:

• Prism cannot connect (silently activate) through a proxy that requires authentication. If you have such a proxy in place, please configure an exception to allow graphpad.com to bypass authentication. 
• Make sure there is no firewall setting that blocks port 80 or  443.  Which port Prism uses depends on whether the startup xml file is configured to use http: (port 80) or https: (port 443). By default, Prism uses http. To use https, insert the following line into startupconfig.xml:

                 <silent-activation-url>https://www.graphpad.com/api/activation/</silent-activation-url>

• If you need to white list Prism in your firewall/network, it's best to allow by domain name rather than IP address. Our network uses dynamic IP addresses which may change over time.

If you need personal help, please write to us and include the following files:

• If you are using Prism Mac, please send the log file:    ~/Library/Logs/GraphPad/Prism6.log 
• If you are using Prism Windows, please set up Prism to create a log file, launch Prism again, and send us that log. 
• With either platform, send us StartupConfig.xml. This is a file created by your IT people to enable silent activation of Prism. It is usually in the same folder as the Prism application. With Macs, it might be included in the Prism.app bundle or be in the same folder as the Prism 6 app, usually the Applications folder.