I'm at a loss....please help

[Mandy Carbenell]

Not sure what happened, but I was logged in...then my router had connection issues so I crashed. After that I cleared cache and relogged. So far so good...not! My home won't rez, I remain a cloud and after about a minute I get the known message "You have been logged out of Second Life etc etc" I did a clean install of Firestorm, tried another viewer but to no avail. Now if my connection was bad I'd say okay but my inventory loads normal so if this sounds familiar and someone has an answer please let me know.

Thank you!

[Orca Flotta]

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Mandy Carbenell wrote:

my router had connection issues so I crashed. After that I cleared cache and relogged.

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Oké, your router had connection issues. That indicates local problems with your router/connection. Can't blame your viewer or the Lindens for stuff like that.

Why o why do so many people still believe in the old and wrong solution of clearing the cache? All it does is purging your cache so that your connection/router/viewer have even more hard work once you're back in game. Coz your cache needs to be repopulated, which makes for some laggyness during the first couple days after clearing the cache.

If you receive message about being logged out by LL it means your PC has a wobbly/lost connection to the servers.

LL just did some unscheduled maintenance on the grid, so many of use experienced problems of one sort or the other during the last couple days. No reason to set up everything new on your end.

To make sure please conduct a speedtest to Dallas/TX, USA (datz where SL's biggest server colo is) and optionally do a tracert to secondlife.com. Are you getting results close to what your ISP was promising?

[Nalates Urriah]

Orca has pretty well explained it, especially the cache issue. I'll point out a good Internet connection is NOT the same thing as a good connection to SL.

SpeedTest.net is going to test your general connection. To test your connection to SL see: http://blog.nalates.net/2011/10/26/troubleshoot-your-sl-connection/ it explains how to get SpeedTest.net to test the route to the SL servers you are using.

Also, check out the RC & Project viewers. There is a HTTP RC Viewer that you may want to try. These are post beta and in theory ready for release as the main SL Viewer. So, they should be as bug free as any viewer main release and have more bug fixes than the current main viewer.

To use RC viewers you need to enable auto update and Willing to Use RC's in Preferences before installing one. With Project viewer it is not an issue as they install into their own folder. The RC viewers replace the current main viewer. The Automatic update process will eventually move you back to the main viewer as the RC gets promoted to main viewer status.

The HTTP Viewer is about reducing the number of connections SL uses. This should make the load on your router lighter. Those working on the viewer and the HTTP project say it reduces needed connections by 75%.

[Rhys Goode]

"Why o why do so many people still believe in the old and wrong solution of clearing the cache?"

I am quite aware of the critical importance of my internet connection, and I am reasonably good at telling when a particular server is having a bad day that just happens to overlap mine.

But cache clearing is part of my ritual for clearing my SL problems. Which are usually:  being a cloud, being the only one seeing a cloud, clothing or attachments that are "stuck" and will not derender even when they show as off in inventory.  My first try is to relog.  That often, but not always fixes things.  And when it does not, further relogs do no seem to help.

So, I do my ritual:  I set my avatar to the default avatar (when things are borked, I might not transform at all, or get stuck halfway through).  Log out of SL.  Maually delete the cache folder on my PC.  Then log into a different server so that the sever cache has none of my info., usually a nice quiet SL area like Hatton or Hippo Hollow. Wait patiiently while my inventory rebuilds. Change back to myself and go on my merry way.

I do this ritual because it works more than 95% of the time to resolve the kind of issues that I have.  And so I tend to recommend it to my friends who report back that it works for them.

If there is a better way to deal with this, I'd love to hear it.

[Orca Flotta]

Hi Rhys. I'm far less geeky about all that technical stuff than Nalates and my English is catastrophic, but please let me try to explainify:

As Jessica Lyon (project leader Firestorm) has stated in an interview, the cache should be cleared ONLY when you suffer corrupted textures, and for NO other reason. It works simply, in layman's terms, like the overflow thingy in your bathtub: as soon as the cache/tub is full old textures will be purged when new ones are coming in.

AFAIK the cache has nothing to do with your inventory, as that is kept on an LL asset server.

Yes, when I'm a cloud for onger than a couple seconds after login I do all the stuff you do as well. Relog. If that doesn't help I slip into a more comfortable n00b outfit. That mostly unclouds me and i can start buiding myself up again.

[Alobar Valeska]

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Orca Flotta wrote:

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Why o why do so many people still believe in the old and wrong solution of clearing the cache? 

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Because it works. This myth that clearing  your cache is not a solution to any number of problems is just that - a myth. Quoting Firestorm developers does little to support the myth. What do the Firestorm developers insist on when you upgrade? A clean install. What does a clean install do? It clears your cache.

As far as I can tell, with the whole "interest list" thing, the cache has become basically useless, anyway. I reload pretty much everything every time I land, and it loads at about the same  rate  whether I have just cleared my cache, or left it alone. What I do know is, that  when I have certain problems, clearing the cache helps. 

So, for the love of christ, please stop with the "don't ever clear your cache" BS ... if it works, it works.