Error Message: “Failed to Connect to Server. Check your Connection and Firewall Settings”

Introduction

Encountering the “Failed to connect to server. Please check your connection and firewall settings” error in Zoolz backup application can be frustrating. This guide will help you troubleshoot and resolve the issue.

Verify Zoolz Settings

Open your Zoolz desktop software → Settings → Connection → If the Wireless connection (WiFi) option is selected, click on WiFi Safelist, and make sure the All WiFi networks option is selected → Click the Save icon → Click the Save icon.

 

Check Your Windows Firewall Or Antivirus Software

Zoolz Archive is a backup software, meaning that it needs to check your files for changes and modifications and communicate with the server to check the current backup state. While this is a normal behavior for a backup software, some Antivirus software might think it is suspicious and constantly scan Zoolz’s application files and folders, thus, making it harder to scan the files and sometimes impossible to communicate to the server. Please try to exclude the following files/folders from your Antivirus:

  • C:\Program Files\Genie9\Zoolz2
  • C:\Program Files\Genie9\Zoolz2\Zoolz.exe
  • C:\Program Files\Genie9\Zoolz2\ZoolzService.exe
  • C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Genie9\Zoolz

 

Check Your Router Settings and Firewall

  • Open TCP ports 80 and 443 on your firewall.
  • Ensure your router is not blocking essential Zoolz domains:

 

 

Check The .NET And The MS Visual C++ Redistributables

  1. Download the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 from this page, and proceed with installing it. If this version or a higher one is installed, you will get a notification about it.
    If you already have the correct version of .NET installed, or the installer above did not solve the problem, please repair your .NET installation using this utility. Once the utility is downloaded, run the tool and follow the steps on your screen to repair your .NET Framework installation.
  2. For non-Windows 10 users, install this update for Universal C Runtime.
  3. Download the following Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable 2017 and install them both:
    Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable 2017 – 32-bit (x86) Download
    Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable 2017 – 64-bit (x64) Download

 

Modify Windows Security Settings

  1. Using a Windows user account that has administrative credentials, log on to the computer.
  2. Press the Windows + R keys on your keyboard to open the Run box → Type gpedit.msc and then press ENTER.
  3. In the Local Group Policy Editor, under the Computer Configuration node, double-click Windows Settings, and then double-click Security Settings.
  4. Under the Security Settings node, double-click Local Policies, and then click Security Options.
  5. In the details pane, double-click System cryptography: Use FIPS-compliant algorithms for encryption, hashing, and signing.
  6. In the System cryptography: Use FIPS-compliant algorithms for encryption, hashing, and signing dialog box, click Disabled, and then click OK to close the dialog box.
  7. Close the Local Group Policy Editor.
  8. Exit Zoolz. (Right-click Zoolz agent (icon) in the system tray (Taskbar) → Exit)
  9. Start Zoolz again. (Start → All Programs → Zoolz → Zoolz)

Generate Debugging Logs

If none of the above resolves the issue, generate the Zoolz debugging logs and email them to the Zoolz Technical Support team at Support@zoolz.com.