Activation CS6 - "Please connect to the internet and retry"

Hi Axel

You're 100% correct

I just worked it out for myself after finding the page which you provided the link for

It is a transport layer issue problem TLS 1.2 to be specific

Unsure what started the problem - perhaps some other update disabled it

All I needed was to run EasyFix51044 and instantly the message went away and I was able to login and activate CS6

The direct link to download EASYFIX51044 is

https://download.microsoft.com/download/0/6/5/0658B1A7-6D2E-474F-BC2C-D69E5B9E9A68/MicrosoftEasyFix51044.msi

Thanks everyone for your replies

adobe connection errors are common and are not related to whether you're connected to the internet.  they're related to connecting to adobe's secure servers.

if you have a non-current os, your default browser must support tls 1.2, https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/multi/eol-tls-support.html

to test your default browser's tls you can use , https://clienttest.ssllabs.com:8443/ssltest/viewMyClient.html

otherwise, confirm that you can connect to the secure adobe servers by reading, http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/activation-network-issues.html

do you see both logos after clicking "link"?

if you can and still see a connection error try these steps, https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/kb/common-network-connectivity-issues.html

if those all fail, white list the adobe network endpoints, https://helpx.adobe.com/enterprise/kb/network-endpoints.html

or, if you’re trying to activate a perpetual license, you can try offline activation by disconnecting your computer from the internet, starting activation and using https://aoes-stage.licensingstack.com/aoes/aoes/v1/imsauthstatus

Neither Microsoft nor Adobe support Windows 7, so its a crapshoot at this point. Follow the directions above and you should be able to connect but I advise getting a newer PC with Windows 10 or 11.