Note: this problem is only associated to licensing via external server (i.e. But it is clearly not the same -I just post it here because the error message that I got was the same, and since it is already solved I do not think it is appropriated to create a new thread. I have struggled for more than a month with a kind of related problem. We did not retrospectively check whether just removing the VPN adapter would have been sufficient - it seems likely, though, from the fact that the file replaced by the re-install was a core file, that it would not have been we would have needed the original Windows file back in place to get things working. One theme in these error reports points to applications or tools that affect port level communication so, along with firewalls, any add-on technologies that create their own network adapters, like the pseudo-port established for a VPN adapter, may be places to start looking. We removed the Cisco VPN software, let the Windows Update process bring us back to the current patch level, and have not had a problem. What we found when we re-booted was a message that files related to the Cisco VPN client software had been changed. What led to a solution was re-installing Windows on top of the existing installation this rolled back some of the core Windows files. Installing the 14.5 upgrade didn't change the problem. We had not had that problem in our previous software set (using 13.0) and we had no luck exchanging pieces, changing/removing firewall settings, or the license server. We had this problem with 14.0, Windows 7 64 SP1 - whenever Workbench tried to launch the Geometry editor it would produce the ansyswbu error. ANSYS 13 X64 Workbench problem: 'Could not connect to local server' - CFD Online Discussion Forums

Licence file for hfss 13.0