Firewall ports needed for QuickBooks Enterprise Desktop

Let's make sure to fix the error to get you back on track, PTI.

QuickBooks Desktop 2023 usually requires a 64-bit Windows operating system and won't run on 32-bit.

Normally, you'll receive this error once QuickBooks Desktop isn't renewed and the subscription has already lapsed. To update this, you can update your payments details for your subscription in your Customer Account Management (CAMPs) portal. To do so, follow the steps outlined below:

1. Sign in to the Customer Account Management Portal (CAMPs) as an admin user.
2. Select QuickBooks Desktop from your products and services.
3. Select details next to your QuickBooks Product.
4. Select Edit next to your Payment Method. Update your payment info. When you’re done, select Save and Close.
5. Open QuickBooks Desktop.
6. Go to the Help menu and hover over Manage My License. Then select Sync License Data Online.

If you're still getting the error, you can install the latest update for your version of QuickBooks Desktop. This often fixes subscription errors and ensures you have the latest features and fixes.

However, if the error still exists, you can check out and proceed to Solution 3 of this article: Fix Subscription Has Lapsed Error In QuickBooks Desktop.

In addition to this, we don't have specific external servers for QuickBooks Desktop to validate the license or subscription.

Apart from this, you may also want to know the technical specifications required when using QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise. To get you familiar with the requirements, take a look and scan this information: QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise Specifications.

Post a comment below if you have further questions when using QuickBooks. We're here to make all things possible by helping you. Have a nice day!

Hello,

This is not a licensing issue.  The product is licensed and works fine unless the PC does not have full internet access after a few days.

Back to my original question, do you know what IP addresses or servers on the internet QuickBooks Desktop is trying to get to?  As long as the PC has full internet access it works fine, but we can't allow the PC to have full internet access at all times, so I need to know what IP address or servers QuickBooks is trying to access so we can allow access to them on our company firewall. 

Thank you.

Thanks for getting back to us, @PTI Phil. I want to ensure this issue is sorted out so you can get back to business.

QuickBooks Desktop doesn't require specific IP addresses or servers for the license to sync. However, it does require an internet connection at least once every 14 days to verify the licensing status. As long as the computer running QuickBooks Desktop has periodic internet access, the license should remain synced and up-to-date.

To acquaint you with the prerequisites, review and examine this information: QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise Specifications

I've also added this great source where you can find articles that can help you with managing your books in QuickBooks. Please head to the QBDT self-help articles. This includes topics such as reconciliation, tracking income and expenses, running reports, etc.

Don't hesitate to join us again here in the Community or reply to me if you have other questions while working in QuickBooks. We're always here to help.

Should you need additional assistance in doing any of your QBDT tasks that you can't find in the articles, please leave a reply below. I'll take every opportunity to help you achieve your goals. Have a good day and keep safe always.

Hello Abigail,

Regarding your statement:

"QuickBooks Desktop doesn't require specific IP addresses or servers for the license to sync. However, it does require an internet connection at least once every 14 days to verify the licensing status."

Because it does require an internet connection periodically to verify the license status, that means it's looking for your servers online to validate the license.  I need to know what those servers are so we can allow access to them thru our company firewall.  I need their IP address or the Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDN) of the servers.  Would you be able to find that out from your technical team?

Without that, our QuickBooks users get the error I mentioned at least once a week, and we have to manually put them online then take them back offline after they validate the license.  It's trying to validate the license more than every 2 weeks.

Thank you.  

Hello there, PTI Phil.

I appreciate you for coming back to the thread and clarifying your concern about setting up your company firewall to operate QuickBooks smoothly. Let me route you to the right person to assist you further on this matter to avoid getting unexpected errors on your end.

As mentioned by my peer above, QuickBooks doesn't need particular IP addresses or servers for the license to sync. However, to verify what servers are so you can allow access to them through your company firewall, I recommend consulting an IT expert. They have the tools to check and provide the specific server you need to use and their Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDN) to configure your company firewall. 

In case you need steps on how you can fix an error that says QuickBooks stopped working, you can read this article: QuickBooks Desktop won't open.

Please let me know if there's anything else you need or questions about managing or running QuickBooks Desktop. I'm always ready to help you further, PTI Phil. Take care!

Hello ChristieAdd,

I am the IT admin of our company, which is why I posted this request so I can update our enterprise firewall to allow our QuickBooks Desktop PCs access to QuickBooks servers for their regular attempts to validate our QuickBooks license.

I could spend considerable time using tools to analyze web traffic to try to deduce what your server IP addresses or FQDNs are, but I was hoping your technical support team could provide this for me, so that I don’t have to spend a lot of time trying to figure this out with trial and error.

Our QuickBooks Desktop installations works fine.  If anyone on your tech team could provide for me what IPs or FQDNs our QuickBooks PCs needs access to thru our firewall in order to validate their QuickBooks licenses periodically, that would save us a lot of time of trying to determine this on our own.  Most companies we purchase software from do have this information, so I was hoping you can also provide this for us.

Thank you for your time.

Hi there, PTI Phil. Appreciate the verification that you are the IT admin of your company. 

When the firewall blocks connectivity between the server and client workstations, there are times when manual configuration is required. The article is for QuickBooks Desktop Point of Sale, but the information provided will work the same with your QuickBooks Desktop 2023.

If you are referring to the IP address configuration from the QuickBooks Server to the PC, here's how to achieve this:

1. Get your computers’ names and IP addresses.
2. Edit Windows host file.
3. Save your changes to the host file.

Just a reminder that Ports 80 and 443 must be enabled to allow access to the executable files for your license verification.

Here are some supplementary articles that will help you configure your firewall in QuickBooks Desktop:

• Fix QuickBooks Desktop Update Errors
• Set up firewall and security settings for QuickBooks Desktop

If you need further help with your firewall ports, I suggest contacting our Customer Support team for more assistance.

Additionally, there's a group of articles you can check on managing your QuickBooks Desktop: Self-help articles.

Let me know if you have further questions about your access to QuickBooks. I'm here to provide assistance. Have a great day.

Hi JanbonN,

Your instructions are referring to the Windows firewall of the Windows PC. I'm talking about our enterprise firewall which is a hardware device. The instructions you sent are for a Windows operating system firewall, and are not applicable to a hardware firewall device.

I’m sorry to keep asking the same question, but the only way this can be resolved is if you or your technical team can tell me what IP addresses or FQDNs I need to allow access to on our hardware firewall device in order for our QuickBooks PC to be able to contact and validate its license periodically with your servers. This is not related to the Windows firewall.

Our QuickBooks PC is trying to connect to Intuit's servers at one or more of your data centers in order to validate its license. I need to know what the IP addresses of those are, or the Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDN) so we can allow access to your license severs on our hardware firewall.

Do you have a technical person or department I can contact for this?

Thanks.

Hi there, PTI Phil.

Thanks for getting back to us. I'm here to assist you in enabling access to your company firewall for seamless QuickBooks operation.

Let me direct you to the appropriate individual who can provide further assistance on this issue, helping you avoid unexpected errors. I recommend reaching out to our Support team. They have specialized tools that can securely access your account and investigate the cause of this unusual behavior. If needed, they can also carry out additional troubleshooting steps.

Here's how to reach them:

1. Open QuickBooks.
2. Go to Help, then select QuickBooks Desktop Help/Contact Us.
3. Select Contact Us.
4. Give a brief description of your issue, then select Continue.
5. Sign in to your Intuit account and select Continue and then Continue with my account.
6. We'll email you a single use code. Enter your code and select Continue.
7. Select to chat with us or Have us call you.

To check for our Support hours, refer to this article: Contact QuickBooks Desktop support.

You can always visit our website for more tips and other resources you can use in the future: Self-help articles.

Please let me know if you have more questions about this or anything QuickBooks, PTI Phil. I'm more than willing to assist. Take care.

Was an answer to this ever provided by QuickBooks? I am having the same issue. I need a list of IPs or FQDNs from Intuit to add as exceptions to my gateway firewall (NOT Windows firewall on the specific workstation but the firewall that protects our corporate network at the gateway level).

 I understand that you need a list of IPs or FQDNs from Intuit to add as exceptions to your gateway firewall, joestar. 

To get the list you need, let me direct you to the right person who can assist you. I suggest reaching out to our QuickBooks Desktop Support team, as they can provide you with the information you require and can even perform additional troubleshooting if necessary. 

Here's how to reach them:

1. Open QuickBooks.
2. Go to Help, then select QuickBooks Desktop Help/Contact Us.
3. Select Contact Us.
4. Give a brief description of your issue, then select Continue.
5. Sign in to your Intuit account and select Continue and then Continue with my account.
6. We'll email you a single use code. Enter your code and select Continue.
7. Select to chat with us or Have us call you.

To check for our Support hours, refer to this article: Contact QuickBooks Desktop support.

If you need to know the technical specifications required when using QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise, take a look at this information: QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise Specifications.

For more tips and resources, feel free to visit our website: Self-help articles.

Please let me know if you have more questions about IP or FQDN. I'm more than willing to assist. Take care.

I finally had a chance last week to reach out the QuickBooks Desktop Support team, as directed above. The support person I spoke to was eager to help but was ultimately unable to provide me with any IP addresses or FQDNs that QuickBooks needs to connect to in order to validate its license. She said she would elevate my issue, but a few days later responded by email with this:

“I apologize about the delayed response but have not been able to get the IP address in question for this issue. I will continue to research and if I am able to find one will reach out again."

Joestar summarized the problem the best above in a few sentences.

If anyone else in the community is ever able to discover the IPs of the servers QuickBooks Desktop is trying to communicate to in order to validate its license, please post it here if you can. I’ve been investigating this myself with the help of WireShark, and so far, it looks like QuickBooks Desktop is reaching out to a number or Amazon datacenters, so I assume Intuit is hosting their license servers with Amazon cloud. There’s still too many Amazon IPs connection found for me to determine which specific one is for license validation, or if there are many needed to add as exceptions on our firewall.

Thanks.

The licensing validation is not just a firewall issue. It is a QuickBooks application or executable that also needs access to the Internet. In other words, if you are attempting to completely block QuickBooks from accessing the Internet, but at the same time allow it to validate licensing, you will need to allow the licensing executable to pass through the firewall via an Application Control Manager which could be router based or standalone. It could also be as simple as allowing the executable to pass through the PC firewall running QuickBooks (which should not be blocked by default).