CS4/5 Activation Server Block for Windows

1. Disconnect from the internet/Turn off wireless/Unplug ethernet cable for internet
2. Install CS4 or CS5 Master Collection/Suite. You should already have serial keys.
3. Make sure to “Never Register” when that window pops up.
4. Once the install is complete, double click on the ‘My Computer’ or ‘Computer’ icon that is on you desktop or in the start menu.
5. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
6. Click the View tab.
7. Under Hidden files and folders, click Show hidden files and folders. Click OK.
8. Now since you just opened ‘My Computer’ you should see the ‘C:’ drive, open it.
9. Navigate to ‘Windows’, ‘System32’, ‘drivers’, ‘etc’, then double click on the ‘hosts’ file.
10. You should see something like “127.0.0.1 localhost”. Copy and paste this in to the text editor underneith the “localhost” line.

    127.0.0.1	activate.adobe.com
    127.0.0.1	practivate.adobe.com
    127.0.0.1	ereg.adobe.com
    127.0.0.1	activate.wip3.adobe.com
    127.0.0.1	wip3.adobe.com
    127.0.0.1	3dns-3.adobe.com
    127.0.0.1	3dns-2.adobe.com
    127.0.0.1	adobe-dns.adobe.com
    127.0.0.1	adobe-dns-2.adobe.com
    127.0.0.1	adobe-dns-3.adobe.com
    127.0.0.1	ereg.wip3.adobe.com
    127.0.0.1	activate-sea.adobe.com
    127.0.0.1	wwis-dubc1-vip60.adobe.com
    127.0.0.1	activate-sjc0.adobe.com

11. Make sure it look nice and clean. Use tabs to make instead of spaces to organize the list. So it should look like this

    127.0.0.1	localhost
    127.0.0.1	activate.adobe.com
    127.0.0.1	practivate.adobe.com
    127.0.0.1	ereg.adobe.com
    ............

12. Click File>Save and then close the text editor window
13. Close everything and restart your computer to flush the dns cache. Once it boots back up the Adobe activation servers are now blocked.
14. Turn you Internet connection back on and open any application from the Master Collection. In the File, Edit, View… menu click on the Help menu and see if it says “Deactivate…” If it does, that means you are all good. If it doesn’t you would be prompted with a Demo License screen where you should type in a different key and try again.
15. ENJOY YOUR $2500 SOFTWARE

CS4/5 Activation Server Block for MAC

1. Disconnect from the Internet/Turn off Airport/Unplug ethernet cable for Internet
2. Install CS4 or CS5 Master Collection/Suite. You should already have serial keys.
3. Make sure to “Never Register” when that window pops up.
4. Once the install is complete, close all adobe windows, Open the ‘Terminal’ (this can be found by typing ‘terminal’ in the spotlight bar at the very top right)
5. Copy and paste

   sudo /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit /etc/hosts

   in to the terminal. You will need to type in your password here for the computer. No letters will show up when you type but it doesn’t show them for you security.

6. Once the password is typed in then this will open a text editor and you should see something like “127.0.0.1 localhost”.
7. Copy and paste this in to the text editor underneath the “localhost” line. Make sure it look nice and clean. Use tabs to make instead of spaces to organise the list.

   127.0.0.1	activate.adobe.com
   127.0.0.1	practivate.adobe.com
   127.0.0.1	ereg.adobe.com
   127.0.0.1	activate.wip3.adobe.com
   127.0.0.1	wip3.adobe.com
   127.0.0.1	3dns-3.adobe.com
   127.0.0.1	3dns-2.adobe.com
   127.0.0.1	adobe-dns.adobe.com
   127.0.0.1	adobe-dns-2.adobe.com
   127.0.0.1	adobe-dns-3.adobe.com
   127.0.0.1	ereg.wip3.adobe.com
   127.0.0.1	activate-sea.adobe.com
   127.0.0.1	wwis-dubc1-vip60.adobe.com
   127.0.0.1	activate-sjc0.adobe.com

8. So it should look like this

   127.0.0.1	localhost
   127.0.0.1	activate.adobe.com
   127.0.0.1	practivate.adobe.com
   127.0.0.1	ereg.adobe.com
   ............

9. Click File>Save and then close the text editor window
10. Copy and paste this in to the terminal window

    sudo dscacheutil -flushcache

11. Press Enter (and type your admin password if asked for it). The Adobe activation servers are now blocked.
12. Turn you Internet connection back on and open any application from the Master Collection. In the File, Edit, View… menu click on the Help menu and see if it says “Deactivate…” If it does, that means you are all good. If it doesn’t you would be prompted with a Demo License screen where you should type in a different key and try again.
13. ENJOY YOUR $2500 SOFTWARE