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"Message Number 32777" Error Message When You Try to Activate Windows Server 2003 Over the Internet

Article ID: 816897 - View products that this article applies to.

SYMPTOMS

When you try to activate Windows Server 2003 over the Internet, Windows Product Activation may be unsuccessful and you may experience the following issues:

You receive a message that prompts you for a user name and password.
You receive the following error message:
Unable to establish a connection with the activation server. Please check your network settings and confirm that you are able to connect to the Internet, then try again. Message number 32777.

Windows Product Activation is unsuccessful whether or not you enter your user name and password.

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CAUSE

This issue occurs if both of the following conditions are true:

Microsoft Internet Explorer's Enhanced Security Configuration is enabled on the server.

-and-
You connect to the Internet through a proxy server where Basic Authentication is enabled.

The Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration (also known as Internet Explorer hardening) uses certificate revocation. This certificate revocation lookup process involves a URL retrieval operation. In this case, the URL retrieval goes through the proxy server and occurs outside the explicit context of the logged-on user. Therefore, Basic Authentication mistakenly prompts you for a user account name and password. As the user, you are typically not aware that certificates are being validated, and you may be prompted repeatedly during the validation of a series of certificates.

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WORKAROUND

To work around this issue, use one of the following methods.

Note The following methods are listed in the order of the most preferred to least preferred, with the most preferred method appearing first.

Method 1: Do Not Use Basic Authentication

Avoid using Basic Authentication on the proxy server. If you must use Basic Authentication, exclude the URLs for the certificate revocation lists (CRLs) from the requirement for basic authentication. To do this, configure the following list of CRLs to be unauthenticated on the proxy server:

http://crl.microsoft.com/pki/crl/productsMicrosoftProductSecureServer.crl
http://crl.microsoft.com/pki/crl/products/MicrosoftProductSecureCommunications.crl
http://crl.microsoft.com/pki/crl/products/MicrosoftRootAuthority.crl
http://www.microsoft.com/pki/crl/productsMicrosoftProductSecureServer.crl
http://www.microsoft.com/pki/crl/products/MicrosoftProductSecureCommunications.crl
http://www.microsoft.com/pki/crl/products/MicrosoftRootAuthority.crl

Method 2: Activate by Using the Telephone

If you receive the error message described in the "Symptoms" section of this article when you try to activate Windows, click the Telephone button in the Activate Windows Wizard to activate Windows over the telephone.

Method 3: Turn Off Certificate Revocation in Internet Explorer

Turn off certificate revocation in Internet Explorer to permit Windows activation to succeed. To do so, follow these steps.

Note Microsoft recommends that you do not turn off certificate revocation in Internet Explorer.

Start Internet Explorer.
On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
Click the Advanced tab, and then click to clear the following check boxes in the Settings list:
Check for publisher’s certificate revocation
Check for server certificate revocation (requires restart)
Click Apply, and then click OK.
Quit and then restart Internet Explorer.
Activate Windows.
In Internet Explorer, click Internet Options on the Tools menu.
Click the Advanced tab, and then click to select the following check boxes in the Settings list:
Check for publisher’s certificate revocation
Check for server certificate revocation (requires restart)
Click Apply, and then click OK.
Quit and then restart Internet Explorer.

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MORE INFORMATION

Because other issues may generate error message number 32777, you can view the Setuplog.txt file to determine whether the issue described in this article is the cause of this error. Status code 407 typically indicates the occurrence of the issue described in this article. The following is an example of Status code 407 as it appears in a Setuplog.txt file:

03/03/2003 09:37:51,d:\dnsrv\base\ntsetup\oobe\msobmain\msobmain.cpp,4423,,DISPID_EXTERNAL_CONNECTEDTOINTERNETEx
03/03/2003 09:37:51,d:\dnsrv\base\ntsetup\oobe\msobcomm\connmgr.cpp,1560,,tries to connect to the WPA HTTP server
03/03/2003 09:37:51,d:\dnsrv\base\ntsetup\oobe\msobcomm\connmgr.cpp,2170,,Disabled RAS Autodial for current logon session
03/03/2003 09:37:51,d:\dnsrv\base\ntsetup\oobe\msobcomm\connmgr.cpp,1480,,HTTP status code from WPA HTTP server 407
03/03/2003 09:37:51,d:\dnsrv\base\ntsetup\oobe\msobcomm\connmgr.cpp,2184,,Restore value of RAS Autodial for current logon session
03/03/2003 09:37:51,d:\dnsrv\base\ntsetup\oobe\msobcomm\connmgr.cpp,1657,,could connect to WPA HTTP server
03/03/2003 09:37:51,OOBE Trace,0,,GetPreferredConnection: null
03/03/2003 09:37:51,OOBE Trace,0,,UseModem: false
03/03/2003 09:37:51,d:\dnsrv\base\ntsetup\oobe\msobmain\msobmain.cpp,3049,,DISPID_EXTERNAL_CONNECT
03/03/2003 09:37:51,d:\dnsrv\base\ntsetup\oobe\msobmain\msobmain.cpp,3054,,DISPID_EXTERNAL_RECONNECT
03/03/2003 09:37:51,d:\dnsrv\base\ntsetup\oobe\msobmain\msobmain.cpp,4500,,DISPID_EXTERNAL_ACTIVATE
03/03/2003 09:37:52,d:\dnsrv\base\ntsetup\oobe\msobmain\msobmain.cpp,6979,,Waiting for response from m_pLicenseAgent->AsyncProcessHandshakeRequest()
03/03/2003 09:37:52,d:\dnsrv\base\ntsetup\oobe\msobmain\msobmain.cpp,5724,,m_pLicenseAgent->AsyncProcessHandshakeRequest() failed.  Error = 32777
03/03/2003 09:37:52,d:\dnsrv\base\ntsetup\oobe\msobmain\msobmain.cpp,311,,Windows Product Activation error.
03/03/2003 09:37:52,d:\dnsrv\base\ntsetup\oobe\msobmain\msobmain.cpp,313,,ReturnActivationStatus: Status = 7, Detail = 32777
03/03/2003 09:37:52,OOBE Trace,0,,Activation failed.  Error = 7

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