XAMPP, Wordpress plugin and firewalls?

[caliray]

XAMPP and Wordpress are installed and working properly on Windows 8.1. I am trying to use a Wordpress plugin called Backup Creator to copy a Wordpress website from my hosting account over to my localhost installation. The Backup Creator plugin was designed to do exactly that. The plugin needs to talk to the Backup Creator website to authorize itself and I have not been able to achieve that.

I found two programs, Windows Firewall and Windows Defender and turned off everything. I also disabled a program called AdFender. If I have any other anti-virus, firewalls, etc. I can't find them. When I try to validate my license key and email address to activate Backup Creator, I get a message that my email address is not the correct one; however, I know this is false because I am copying the information directly from within the Backup Creator member area, and also, I have successfully validated other installs that are online websites.

The support for Backup Creator has tried to help but their last suggestion is that I post here to see if anyone has any idea what may be the solution.

I don't know where to look to resolve this. If anyone has any ideas how to proceed I would appreciate hearing them.

Regards,
Caliray