If you don't have permissions to edit your hosts file, you can run notepad as administrator:

1. Browse to c:\windows\system32
2. Right-click on notepad.exe
3. Click 'Run as administrator'
4. Click 'Yes'

Now you have notepad running as administrator, so you can open the file and edit it:

5. File > Open
6. Type in: c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
7. Add this line to the bottom of the file:

127.0.0.1 www.defendersstore.com

8. Save the file

This prevents your computer from trying to access www.defendersstore.com, which DD tries to do when you start an AFK shop. Once I added this line, I was able to run an AFK shop :) Also, make sure you restart Dungeon Defenders after doing this.

Hope this helps :)

As said in the description, I didn't write this, I just found on the foruns and decided to post here to help spread the fix :)

Full credits to DDace and Plane.

Here is the original thread: https://dungeondefenders.com/1/topic/142444/?scrollTo=1261413&page=2#1261413