"Establish an internet connection to continue"

[TanguyNed]

Hello,

For a few weeks now we have been having an issue with AutoCAD's licence check. It's specifically on AutoCAD Map 3D 2018, we have a perpetual licence, but now a message has started appearing saying "Establish an internet connection to continue". I've tried most things from this support page, to no avail.

I have also noticed that in the Windows' event observer, when I try to launch AutoCAD, events appear from source "Schannel" that say "The certificate from the distant server expired or isn't yet valid" (I'm translating from french). This makes me think that the problem comes from AutoDesk's servers, not our machine.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

[bearamirez998]

That Schannel error is the key clue it usually means the secure connection (SSL/TLS) AutoCAD uses for license checks is failing, not that your internet is down.

Even with a perpetual license, AutoCAD 2018 still tries to validate certificates online, and since it’s older it can run into issues with newer certificate standards or expired trust chains. Make sure your system date/time is correct, TLS 1.2 is enabled in Internet Options, Windows is fully updated (including root certificates), and try restarting or reinstalling the Autodesk Licensing Service.

So it’s most likely a certificate compatibility issue rather than something wrong with your machine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schannel?

[Radwan-Almsora]

Because Autodesk 2018 products rely on third-party security certificates and older protocols, your machine is likely failing to authenticate with the licensing servers. The Schannel event log errors indicate that your computer's security trust list cannot verify the Autodesk server's certificate.

You can also solve your problem from here 

Establish an Internet connection to continue" when starting Autodesk software

[TanguyNed]

Are those AI automated answers? Something is off about them, like rewording things I have written and posting a link I explicitly said I've already tried. Also retwan_tech's profile picture (if you open his full profile) can be found elsewhere on the internet using a reverse image search, and it seems AI-generated.

What do the actual humans have to say about this one?

[Radwan-Almsora]

Your comment was also generated by artificial intelligence.