The web server that handles the DraftSight activation process is not working properly and is throwing an internal server error.
Using WireShark, I was able to determine the following:
Upon launching an unactivated installation of DraftSight, and again when the activation form opens, it makes a HTTP POST request to http://www.draftsight.com/webservices/drs_activation.cfc. The POST request includes two unique strings, a GUID and a token. The server responds with some XML code indicating that the DraftSight installation is not registered.
Upon submitting the activation form, DraftSight makes another HTTP POST request to the same URL. This one also includes the same GUID and token values, but also includes the information entered in the activation form, along with a bunch of identifying information about the computer's hardware and software. However this time the server responds with an internal server error. This is the HTTP header:
HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error
Content-Type: text/html
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2017 21:03:55 GMT
Content-Length: 1208
When this happens, DraftSight does not give any indication what has happened, it just shuts down and the activation process fails because the request was never successfully processed the submission.
I've observed this phenomenon on both 2017 and 2018 versions of DraftSight and I suspect this has been the cause of the ongoing problems with DraftSight activation.
I have a couple of suggestions for Dassault:
- Fix your server.
- Update Draftsight so that it gives an indication of what is going on when a server error occurs.
I hope someone from Dassault can fix this soon! I love DraftSight, but this activation problem has always been a headache!
