I also encountered a new error. It’s been working fine all day just up until 15 minutes ago. I can get to the activation site and press “activate” but in Zbrush, when I press “Check now” it says it’s unable to connect to the server.
I’m having the same issue. Bad timing for my final project due next week. 
I’ve been getting a similar issue.
This happened last week and today. I launch ZBrush and see the window that tells me I need to launch a browser to activate ZBrush. From the browser I click the activate ZBrush button and see a message that tells me I have 27 days left in my trial.
I return to ZBrush and click the Check Now button and get a message that ZBrush was not able to connect to the Pixologic server.
I was using the program last night and the activation routine worked fine. It seems that I run into this issue during the day but it works fine in the evening. I’ll try again later and see what happens.
BTW - I’m running Lion on OSX on a wireless network in my home. I’ve tried using Chrome, Safari and Firefox with no luck. Each time the meesage is the same - ZBrush cannot access the Pixologic server.
So I tried again 4 hours later and everything is normal and working again.
Could the issue be the number of people attempting the same process? It seems odd that it’s an issue during the day and resolves late in the afternoon.
Back to work…
This is happening to me today all day and most of last weekend. I am currently on a MAC OS trial and it seems to only connect sometimes since I downloaded ZBrush last week. It is a bit frustrating! I do not know if it is because I am in Australia and the server may go down at ‘night’ in another country. For instance right now, the last four hours cannot log in. It opens Zbrush, says I need to connect to the Internet to activate another day of the trial but then tries to load the page, but it is forever ‘waiting for www.pixologic05.com…’ to connect and times out after a few minutes of waiting!
Still can’t activate trial 
small_orange_diamond:
“Firefox can’t establish a connection to the server at www.pixologic05.com”
Is there an issue with that server? Is it possible to use a different server/url?
I am also getting this response at the moment. I have been for the last few hours and most of last weekend with the trial.
Same thing is happening to me…
The problem wound up being bigger than we thought. Please see http://www.zbrushcentral.com/announcement.php?a=45
Thanks!
Go to ZBrush Central > click on message in orange about midway on page > get info re: trial Downloads, tutorials, etc being repaired. Looks like we will just have to keep checking until they get it fixed. Question: Will we get an extension on our 30 day trial period ??
- [INDENT=3]ZBrush Trial Server is down for repairsGo to ZBrush Central > click on message in orange about midway on page > get info re: trial Downloads, tutorials, etc being repaired. Looks like we will just have to keep checking until they get it fixed. Question: Will we get an extension on our 30 day trial period ??
The Trial allows 30 days of use over 45 calendar days. So even though a few days are being lost here out of the calendar days, it will not affect the number of days of use that you have. In other words, if you had 25 days of use left before this happened, you’ll still have 25 days of use left after.
Thank you
Tom
This is REALLY proving to be a trial… I was constantly getting ‘Unable to connect to Pixologic Server’ when I attempted to start my freshly downloaded Zbrush trial, meanwhile however, it’s giving me ‘unable to retrieve a valid computer ID for your machine…’ Anyone have any ideas? Any help much appreciated
Kind Regards
Sledge
Here it is, 2015, and I’m having the same problem. Everything was working fine for the last week or so, and then today I can’t log on. Is it only the trial version that requires connection to the server in order to work?
I doing some test project for work couple hours ago and everything worked fine. Couple hour later I’m stuck behind this “Unable to connect to Pixologic Server” any ides… ?
I unfortunately have the same problem starting my ZBrush-trial today. I keep getting the error-popup (“The Pixologic server is unable to be contacted in order to verify your license. ZBrush cannot be run until this is resolved. Please…”) Everything was fine (Download, first activation, last ten days of trial) until now. I didn’t change anything to my setup and double-checked everything (Router restart, machine restart, firewall-deactivation, ping-tests, several Websites,…) with no luck. Internet-connection is working flawlessly.
Would’ve loved to trial-on today. Please help!
Thank you very much in advance.
best
Tom
One of our servers is currently down, affecting you. Our webmaster has just been notified. Give it another hour or so and then try again. Depending on the nature of the problem, it may take longer but once the server is back up you’ll be able to proceed.
The trial will not start until you actually run it the first time. So you’re not losing any time from your trial period while this is resolved.
This does not appear to be working. I have registered for the trial version and I am getting the same message as other users.
Cannot connect to the server to download trial?
any ideas?
Thanks
I have registered for your trial download, but I cannot connect to server for the download?
One of our servers is currently down, affecting you. Our webmaster has just been notified. Give it another hour or so and then try again. Depending on the nature of the problem, it may take longer but once the server is back up you’ll be able to proceed.
The trial will not start until you actually run it the first time. So you’re not losing any time from your trial period while this is resolved.
Thank you for your quick reply and for fixing the server. My trial is up and running again!
BUT… since I am looking forward to buy a ZBrush license to use it on a daily basis I have a very big question regarding the presence of your servers and the presence of my internet connection (ISP-sided). Say … I will be working on an urgent job with a close deadline with my regular ZBrush-license. Yesterday I tried to use ZBrush at 10 am (local time). At 5pm the server-issue still persisted. In case of a real job the loss of 7 hours(!) could easily be lethal for my job actually.
So here is my question: Is the regular license also that much depending on the 24/7-presence of your servers? Will there always be the chance of losing many hours by accident? Or - the second scenario - will a defective internet-connection always “kill” my job because ZBrush would defy to work?
Only the Trial requires checking in with the server each time it’s launched. That’s a security measure to prevent someone from artificially extending the Trial to last forever. The purchased license only needs to check in with our server when you are specifically activating a new installation or deactivating prior to removing it from a computer (or reinstalling the OS). All the rest of the time in between, it simply launches with no need to check in with our servers.