DNS could not resolve host name...

[Nosfera Osterham]

I have not been able to log into the SL Viewer for over a week now.  Every time I've tried logging in I receive the message:

"Login fail.

DNS could not resolve the host name.

Please verify that you can connect to the www.secondlife.com website.  If you can, but continue to receive this error, please go to the support  section and report this problem."

I don't see anywhere to report a problem but here in the forums.  I've already tried a number of possible fixes, such as:

1.  Flushing my DNS.

2.  Manually flushing the DNS.

3.  I've check my router for any possible blocks (didn't think this was a possibility since I am the administrator of the network).

4.  Checked my computer for any possible blocks.

5.  Checked with my service provider for any possible issues.

6.  Uninstalled, removed all files partaining to SL, reinstalled.

7.  Installed another viewer.

Any of the other viewers work but still I'm not able to log in with the SL viewer.  I'd prefer to use SL's because it is the most stable.  All other ones have crash issues when you log into heavily scripted or heavily populated areas from time to time.  If anyone has any other suggestions, please throw them at me.  I'm not willing to do anything that leaves my computer vulnerable to hacks (I do have quite a lot of computer knowledge... built this computer this last year and I'm very familiar with it), so those types of fixes are out of the question.

Please help!

[Nosfera Osterham]

I did find out how to report a viewer issue to support.  Sorry.  Until I hear a response, feel free to leave any suggestions you may have.

[Nosfera Osterham]

Another thing I just noticed is that my viewer isn't giving me an option to select the region I want to log into (ie Home, Last Location).

[Nalates Urriah]

Ok... you shoulda asked and searched in ANSWERS. You would have found your answer and not had to wait.

Also... When you ask a tech question include information about your computer. Get the info from the viewer's Help-About... and paste that into your post with your question. To add your info to an existing question use OPTIONS->EDIT. It’s in the upper right of your post.

If your on a Mac, this is a common problem and we have answered it dozens of times.

Open Troubleshoot Your #SL Connection. Scroll down and read the part about DNS. That will hopefully get you going.

 

[Nosfera Osterham]

Thanks for the response but it didn't help.  I did look in "Answers" and saw this fix prior to ever posting anything.  I tried it again, thinking maybe your off-forum post had slightly different instructions but it didn't work, either.  =(  I checked my speed (which I did when this first happened, thinking it was me) and ping and it was good.  I've tried multple regions even before looking up help, with no luck.  I've reset my router and modem (unplugging them, left them off while I watched a movie, then reconnecting them - first modem, letting it boot, then hooking it up to the router, letting it boot, then hooking it to my pc, letting it boot), no luck.  I even tried bypassing my router, (hooking the modem directly to my pc) with no results.  Finally, opened the ports SL suggests opening with no luck.  Even tried assigning my DNS to Google DNS.

I gave up and am just going to use a 3rd party viewer.  Support never responded, either.  I can't figure out what the problem is.

[Danny Nolan]

Do you use Hamachi or Tunngle? Or any program that's creating a fake VPN, or lan connection. If so, you're going to need to set the precedence of your network adapter over it in order to connect to second life. If you don't use either of those, you'll prob want to do these steps anyway.

Open up your control panel and go to network and sharing center (assuming you're on windows). Click change adapter settings. Hold alt. This'll open up the hidden menu at the top. Chose advanced -> advanced settings. Now find the network adapter in which your internet is connected to. For me, it's LAN1. Chose it in the connections pane, and make sure it's on top.

If you're not on windows .. wel then I have no idea. Haha. Someone who uses mac/linux will have to answer that.

[Nosfera Osterham]

Thank you for the suggestion.  I will try that.  I've discovered part of the issue.  It was a firewall problem from my router, I believe.  I disabled that firewall and am now able to log into the SL Viewer.  Now I'm just having crash problem.

[Knowl Paine]

Wireless routers can have performance problems, (like constantly crashing). A wired connection is ideal.

In the past, there have been Residents who reported crashing after only being online for a few minutes, in those case the type of router they used was the problem, there were only two types, one was a Netgear, I don't recall the other.

If you're crashing while trying to get into SL, you can change your login location to a empty water region like Smith.

Lower your graphics settings in Preferences.

If you continue to have issues, post over in the Answer's Section, you will get faster replies.

 

 

Edit: typo

 

[Nosfera Osterham]

I don't game wirelessly, ever.  Too may possible lag issues.  I'm always wired, but it is a Netgear.  I don't believe it is a router issue, though, because I've been using the same router at least a year.  The issues started just this last month.  I said that it was a firewall issue with my router but I meant the modem.  We got a new Samsung modem from our ISP and I wasn't aware that when we hooked up the new modem they installed a firewall with it onto each computer that hooks up to the service.  Ignorant on their part not to tell us.  Believe me.  I had a fit when I found out.  Installing crap on my computer without my consent or knowledge?  ARGH!

I was able to stay connected most of the entire night last night, however.  The only times I seem to run into issues is while building a lot or uploading textures or images.  If I'm rummaging through my folder to find the texture I want it seems to crash on me.  Otherwise, disabling their firewall helped tremendously. 

[fifi Shelman]

I have the same problem, only SL for me doenst work even with a third party viever, I cant log in for the last two weeks, I formatted my hard drive and reintalled everything new, nothing works

[Qie Niangao]

This is an ancient thread, so I'm guessing you found it because you are having the specific DNS problem cited in the title. If that's the case, you want to be very sure that one of Google's public DNS servers is included in your network configuration, as described in the blog post that Nalates cites above. There are other suggestions in that article, too, for diagnosing what's actually going wrong with your connection -- even if it's something other than the DNS failure that titles this thread.

(Even the best ISPs' DNS servers are notoriously unreliable. You want them in the configuration, for reasons Nalates describes, but they're just not adequate as a "sole source" of DNS data.)

[Tama Lisle]

Restarting PC and rooter ( or anything gives your pc IP addresses with DHCP)  resulves the problem myself. I have a bad feeling     like if SL servers are Pharming my rooter's DNS proxy but no clue. Well I just wanted to point an better solution of my case rather than formatting harddrives (and got sick of reading 'its your fault' useless suggestions)., Good luck. 

[Nosfera Osterham]

This is ancient and has since been resolved on it's own. 

 

My solution was to give up using SL Viewer.  Firestorm worked perfectly.

 

When looking up stuff on other forums there was a suggestion that SL Viewer was having some type of issues with Windows 8 users and would block them out of the viewer.  Not sure if that is true, but was just a few comments I saw on some tech forums.  If this was the case, it's since been resolved because not long ago there was a Firestorm update that had a bunch of glitches in it for Windows 8 users with my type of graphics card.  I switched over to the SL Viewer for a day and the SL Viewer worked just fine.

Regardless of my long story...  this thread can now be closed.