I'm new; am having great difficulty logging on; sometimes it does; and then it doesn't other times

[Gingerita]

i don't know if I have the correct download for my laptop; which is a MacBook Pro. 

[Rolig Loon]

If you had the wrong download, then you would never be able to log in, so that's probably not the problem.  Without any more details about what's happening when your login fails, it's hard to offer specific advice. I assume that you checked before downloading to be sure that your computer meets at least the minimum requirements for running a SL viewer.  If not, you could simply be overtasking the poor machine, so that it quits before setting itself on fire.  (Well, not literally, but SL does put a very heavy load on your graphics card. If your computer is basically designed for light office use and watching an occasional YouTube video, it can easily overheat and bail out to protect itself.)  

I suggest looking at these rather generic suggestions about common causes for login failure.  If you want to provide extra information or need to clarify your question so that we can offer more spcific advice, click on the Options link in the upper right corner of your question and select EDIT. Please do not start a new thread. Doing that makes it hard for us to see what other people have already suggested, and it pushes other residents' questions off the page.

See http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/login_fail

and http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Login-failure/ta-p/700109

[Madelaine McMasters]

Hi Gingerita,

You've not given us much information to go on. Do you get any error messages? Are you connecting via wi-fi? Come back to your question and edit it to add more information (do that via "Options" over there on the right). Until then, let me make a wild guess that your problems are connection related. (This is my default answer when I've no idea what's wrong).

If you are on wi-fi, try a wired connection temporarily. SL is terribly finicky about the quality (not so much the speed) of your internet connection and wi-fi can drop enough packets to anger the system.

Natales Urriah has written a guide to improving your connection which will keep you busy for quite a while, and may be technically challenging. Absent knowing more about your problem, this is the best advice I know. Bookmark it. Even if it doesn't help you now, you may find something helpful there in the future...

http://blog.nalates.net/2011/10/26/troubleshoot-your-sl-connection/

Good luck, and welcome aboard!

 

[Nalates Urriah]

When you ask a tech question include information about your computer and viewer. If the viewer will at least show the login screen, get the info from the viewer's Help-About... and paste that into your post with your question. Help->About... provides all the version numbers we need.  To add your info to an existing question use OPTIONS->EDIT. It’s in the upper right of your post.

It also helps to know if you are using a laptop or a desktop and a wired or wireless connection.

Without that information all we can do is guess. That means you have to try all our bad guesses and eliminate them one by one. This is easier for all of us, if you give us good information to start with.