Gitlab 8.17.2 cannot authorize runner when trying to register

I cannot register my runner! I’m trying to register the runner on the server that is running gitlab and I would like it to stay this way if possible as it would be easier for me. I’ve installed the runner prerequisites:

sudo curl -L https://packages.gitlab.com/install/repositories/runner/gitlab-ci-multi-runner/script.deb.sh | sudo bash
sudo apt-get install gitlab-ci-multi-runner

Once that was done I entered:

sudo gitlab-ci-multi-runner register

I then went through and entered the ci co ordinator “example.com/ci” then I get the key from /admin/runners

Once that is done it says 401 unauthorised