I did what you suggested.  I telnet my IP, the computer name and all that Telnet gives me is an error, to run ?/help command.

add exceptions for ports 2080 and 27000-27009 to the Windows firewall.

Sorry, I don’t understand.

How to Open a Port in the Windows 7 Firewall

I’ve added the exceptions for Windows Firewall :). I’ve telnet ports, 2080, 27000-27009 all of which I still get an error ”could not open the connection on the host”.  I have a question when you wrote 27000-27009 did you mean write an exception for all ports 27000, “001, “002” etc, etc, etc ?

Although I’m still getting the ”No Interactive License error”, I did get Softimage to pin to the taskbar :)

In the firewall exceptions, you should be able to enter “2080, 27000-27009”.
(Yes, I did mean that you should add exceptions for 27000, 27001, ...).

If telnet still cannot connect, then the ports are still being blocked.
Try disabling the firewall completely, just to confirm that the firewall is indeed the problem.

Do you have any other security software running?

When you try to start Softimage, also try the default Start menu shortcuts.

In the firewall exceptions, you should be able to enter “2080, 27000-27009”.
(Yes, I did mean that you should add exceptions for 27000, 27001, ...).

If telnet still cannot connect, then the ports are still being blocked.
Try disabling the firewall completely, just to confirm that the firewall is indeed the problem.

I’ve added the exception for all ports.

Do you have any other security software running?

No, other security software running, Firewall within Windows7 is completely turned off.

When you try to start Softimage, also try the default Start menu shortcuts.

Yes, after all that, the error still is there :(