I downloaded the "stand alone" manager (it only seems to work from within FS9).
That's normal.
"Stand-Alone" doesn't mean you can use it outside the simulator, it only means the installer is "Stand-Alone", meaning it only contains the Addon Manager, instead of having it included as part of a scenery installation so, basically, it's a smaller installer.
If this URL is pasted into my browser I get the infamous error 404.
Of course you get a 404 error: the Esellerate servers closed in 2019, so it's entirely normal you would see that page. The software still contains support for the Esellerate system, but that's ONLY to allow users that never updated or changed their existing PCs to continue to use their original Esellerate activation they got locally, because our software never "calls home" to verify ìthe activation, the only time it does connect, is when you need a NEW activation, that is on a new PC, or an old PC that has either reinstalled from scratch or updated with major hardware components. So, Esellerate is still there, but you cannot do a new activation on it: new activations are only possible with the new QLM/Soraco system, and the updated Addon Manager,
But that's only the OFFLINE activation page, it's not the normal activation method, which is of course far easier and automated, the OFFLINE activation you are seeing, is the one from Esellerate (which as I've said is still there to support users that never updated their PCs, so they don't need to connect), so we shouldn't be surprised it doesn't work, but rather why you are seeing it, on a NEW system, which will first try the normal ONLINE activation on QLM/Soraco first.
The most likely causes for the offline activation page to come up, assuming your system IS really connected to the internet are:
- Your firewall is blocking online access to the program, so it thinks there's no internet.
OR
- Your antivirus has blocked the installation of the updated Addon Manager, so you are still getting the old version, which first failed because it didn't find the Esellerate servers (of course, they closed in 2019), so it reverted to the offline activation, which cannot work on a new system, because the Esellerate page to activate offline is gone like the rest of their servers.
OR
- You installed a scenery using its installer AFTER you updated the Addon Manager. This is a problem, because we only updated the Stand-Alone Addon Manager with the new QLM/Soraco system, not the various installers for FS9, so if you install a scenery *after* the Addon Manager, the scenery installer will "downgrade" it to an Esellerate-only version, which will never work.
So, be sure you turn off your firewall, and be sure you added the whole FS9 folder folder to the antivirus EXCLUSIONS, and reinstall the Stand-Alone Addon Manager as the LAST thing you do.
