Minimum connection speed required to run second life

[captainspikecheezyzap]

What is the minimum connection speed required to run second life? Is a 500kbps Dsl connection enough ? I am talking about the minimum speeds on which Second Life can run good .How about 500kbps , Dsl connection ?

 

[Peggy Paperdoll]

SL will run at 500 kbps but barely (you'll likely get disconnected in the more heavily textured and populated sims).  So will SL run good at that speed?  I wouldn't say so but it will run.......poorly, in my opinion. 

But here's the problem with a DSL connection rated at 500 kbps.  That's the advertised speed.  It's the maximum download bandwidth your DSL connection will allow and you'll seldom see that speed, especially if you live further away from your ISP's servers than about 2 miles (that's the cable miles from your home to the front end for the servers).  Your bandwidth is effected by other users on the same trunk line back to the servers........you're likely only getting about 75% of that advertised speed during normal usage time for your neighborhood.  That means during peak times for your area you're getting about 375 kbps download.  And I wouldn't bet that that slow a speed would even allow you to connect to the SL servers.  During non-peak hours you probably could connect (with occassional disconnects) but your experience is not going to be good (not by most people's standard as to what is "good").

[captainspikecheezyzap]

Thanks for your opinion I am going for the 12mbps plan . I hope that will run sl smooth

[Baloo Uriza]

Oh, yeah, no problems, that's by no means low bandwidth (since I think the bandwidth slider in the official viewer only goes up to 5 mbps).  It is possible to tweak things so you can get a workable (albiet painful if you're not patient) SL experience on 56kbps if you have an idea how UDP and the deeper advanced settings work.  Plan on relying heavily on hitch-hiking and public transportation if you plan on travelling on low bandwidth.

[captainspikecheezyzap]

I am opting for a Broadband plan now not dsl . I think that 500 kbps Broadband Connection can run Second Life well.

 

Second Life functions by streaming all data to the user live over the Internet with minimal local caching of frequently used data. The user is expected to have a minimum of 300kbit/s of Internet bandwidth for basic functionality, with 1Mbit/s providing better performance.

-Source Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life#Technical_issues

[Perrie Juran]

---

captainspikecheezyzap wrote:

I am opting for a Broadband plan now not dsl . I think that 500 kbps Broadband Connection can run Second Life well.

 

Second Life functions by streaming all data to the user live over the Internet with minimal local caching of frequently used data. The user is expected to have a minimum of 300kbit/s of Internet bandwidth for basic functionality, with 1Mbit/s providing better performance.

-Source Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life#Technical_issues

---

Actually,DSL is a form of Broadband:

"Broadband Internet access, often shortened to just broadband and also known as high-speed Internet access, are services that provide bit-rates considerably higher than that available using a 56 kbit/s modem. In the U.S. National Broadband Plan of 2009, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) defined broadband access as "Internet access that is always on and faster than the traditional dial-up access",[7] although the FCC has defined it differently through the years.[8] The term broadband was originally a reference to multi-frequency communication, as opposed to narrowband or baseband. Broadband is now a marketing term that telephone, cable, and other companies use to sell their more expensive higher data rate products."

 

"The broadband technologies in widest use are ADSL and cable Internet access."

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_access

[Baloo Uriza]

That doesn't stop DSL from sucking thanks to the shared bandwidth problem.  This is a real issue towards city center areas where there's a lot of businesses with guaranteed throughput contracts, since residential DSL users typically share the slops of what's left over on the DSLAM's bandwidth after all gauranteed throughput contracts have been serviced.