MATLAB nodesktop nojvm cannot find license server

I've run an interpreter window from Windows terminal using

matlab -nosplash -nodesktop -nojvm

Inside this interpreter, I run several scripts. Most exquisitely, it will use parallel processing for computation, but otherwise, nothing fancy.

The code will run for a while, and then stops with LM error -15 (can't connect to license server).

Using the license command, I get 'unknown' as a response.

The thing is, I made sure that the computer remains connected to the Internet.

Also, using MATLAB with desktop, I run the license command, and a valid license is returned.

Why is this happening? Is disabling the JVM causing this to happen?