Solidworks 2010-11 Academic won't update to latest SP

The school where I am taking a class on Solidworks recommended that I purchase a student version of the software.  I purchased exactly the same software that they are running in the classroom and have it up and running on my computer at home.  I noticed that when I attempt to open a file at home, it mentions something about saving it to a different version.  I subsequently found that I'm running SP2.1 at home, yet it seems they are running SP4 at school.

I have attempted the following to update to SP4 with no success:

1)  Launching "Solidworks Installation Manager" and allowed it to update itself.  It gets to the point where it attempts to connect to the update server, and fails, claiming it cannot connect.  I have disabled all antivirus software and Windows Firewall, yet the failure persists.  I had a friend attempt the same with his same version, and he is also getting a server update failure.

2)  I have attempted to create an account at Solidworks (customer account, not guest), however upon entering my academic version serial number, the solidworks website claims that it is not valid (yet it activated the software just fine with the same number).

How do get Solidworks to update properly to Service Pack 4, so that I am compatible with my school's installations at home?