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Can Setting Bandwidth Too High Cause Problems For SL ?


Dark Larkspur
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Hi All - Happy New Year. With new viewers, I discovered the ability to set the Bandwidth to a higher number than was allowed to be set in previous viewer versions (In the Preferences/Net Tab). My assumption was I could set it all the way to the top and it would allow SL to suck down/push up as much as possible (within the limits of my ISP abilities). I also assumed that allowing SL to have all the bandwidth available to me might cause problems for Other Programs on my computer that were trying to run at the same time (and this I don't really care if it does). SO NOW THE REAL QUESTION: Will setting my bandwidth for SL to a level higher than my ISP claims to provide cause problems for SL Itself ? AND, since there is no seperate "Up and Down Speed Settings" - how does this relate to and ISP that claims to provide one speed for UpStream and a seperate speed for DownStream ?

Thanks In Advance :-)

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Setting the bandwidth in the viewer tells the servers how much to send to your computer in kilo bits per sec (or mega bits per sec).  If you set that above what your ISP or your computer can handle then that will cause you to suffer packet loss.......which slows you down instead of speeding you up.  That's assuming the servers actually are able to send as much as you say to send.  The servers will only send as much as they have the resources to send....without too many concurrent users they can send more, with many concurrents they can send less.  Setting your bandwidth to anything above what your tested download speed is will almost definitely cause you to experience packet loss.......if you only have 1 mbps dowload and you set your bandwidth to 1500 kbps (1.5 mbps) you will probably have quite a bit of packet loss.  If you have a connection speed of, say, 30,000 kbps (30 mbps) then you're probably safe for any setting you set since I don't believe the servers can deliver even 10,000 kbps (10 mbps).  You can also swamp your computer too, which will cause the same problem........a router with a speed of 100 mbps you are safe there but if your processor can only handle 2 mbps then you're going to have problems if you exceed that.  There are many things that determine just how much data your computer and connection can handle.

 

The test your download speed go to:

http://www.speedtest.net/

and run a couple tests each to San Francisco, CA and Dallas, TX.......take an average for the tests and set your bandwidth to about 10% below that.  If SL runs smoothly and you have no packet loss then try upping your bandwidth by about 500 kbps and see if SL still runs smooth with no packet loss.  Keep upping your setting until you reach a point of packet loss then back off to the last setting that gave you no packet loss and deduct about 10%.  That setting should work in almost all occassions for SL (high concurrency, internet traffic, and background programs will cause occassional times of packet loss which is normal).  If you see anything over about 2% packet loss it's getting excessive and you'll see a noticable drop in performance.........packet loss should always be 1% or less.

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Thank You Peggy - I have almost 9.5 Mbps Download and almost 1 Mbps Upload - sooo I think I will try around 8.5-9.0 Bandwidth - however; I still wonder how the difference between upload and download speeds works with the viewer's "Single Bandwidth Setting"......

 

Message was edited by: Dark LarkspurPS: My computer can handle MANY times more than my Service Provider ; provides ; LOL

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You're upload is unimportant for any bandwidth setting.  The viewer sends only your avatar's location and direction of focus.......very small requests to the servers. 1 mbps upload is probably 100 times what is needed.  You're download is what determines the bandwidth needed for best performance.  I have a 30 mbps download and my preference bandwidth setting is 1500 kbps (1.5 mbps) and I get about 30 frames per second (smooth video) in moderately populated areas......draw distance is 256 meters.  No packet loss at all.  I've tried higher bandwidth settings and saw no improvement and I could not produce packet loss unless I went crazy with settings.  In my opinion, 1500 kbps should be fine for almost anything in SL  I did find, however, too low of settings produced lower frame rates.  It's up to you to decide what is best for you........most people cannot see a difference between 30 fps and 90 fps anyway (your graphics is simply drawing each frame 3 times for the same frame as far as the human eye can see).  It doesn't hurt anything but I don't see the sense in it........bragging rights aside. 

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Thank you Peggy - I assumed upload was less important since the ISPs are designed to work that way in the first place - but have seen references to Your Viewer telling SL what clothes you are wearing and such - but it makes perfect sence - your viewer only has to say what - not upload all the stuff since it all lives on the LL Servers in the first place... Huggs.... Yeah - FPS - what; the average Human Eye can not tell a flicker over 30 FPS or something like that ??? so having 60 FPS could be considered a little overboard, outside some special applications / uses.... Thanks for your insights... ♥

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HI Dark:

Just wanted to add a tad to a well answered question. I have read that the SL grid servers in fact cap out at 1500Kbs, A handy thing to do is use something like this http://www.speedtest.net/ to get your speeds. If your DL speed comes back at say 2000Kbs or above set your viewer to the 1500Kbs setting. If you come back lower than that 2000Kbs speed set your viewer to approx. 2/3 to 3/4 of your shown speed. The reasoning to this is to not let SL use up the whole pipeline leaving a bit of overhead for IP overhead and network inconsistencies. With that you will be close and a little nudge one way or the other you can see how many packets are being dropped. Also some sims you will get packet loss no matter what as it may be a very loaded server working its lil chip off.

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Wow - that messes with my mind - cause I swear the last Phoenix had a max of 500Kbps and now the new one has 10,000Kbps - and I thought pushing it up to half the allowed would be good (5000Kbps) - what possible use is there to having almost 10 times the ability of the SL Servers as a setting in the viewers ????

I did that speed test - I get pretty much what my ISP claims to give me - 10 Megs down and 1 Meg up........

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I was told by one of the support team members of the Phoenix Support Group that the SL Servers "capped out" at 3000.

Fact or fiction on whether the 3000 "cap" number that I was told is officially correct information... I have no idea.

I have a 50 MB downstream internet connection with computer hardware (Router, NIC, Computer, etc.) that's more than capable of keeping up... I can't say that I can really 'feel' or 'see' any significant difference "in-world" when running SL between setting it at 1500 or 3000 (which is where I've had it set soon after switching to Phoenix a couple of months ago from SL v. 1.23 @ 1500)... which (thinking out loud to self) would almost seem to support that the cap is 1500 (and perhaps not 3000).

Excellent replies by all to Dark's original post/question, btw.

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PelleLaccio Piaggio wrote:

 

I was told by one of the support team members of the Phoenix Support Group that the SL Servers "capped out" at 3000.

Fact or fiction on whether the 3000 "cap" number that I was told is officially correct information... I have no idea.

I have a 50 MB downstream internet connection with computer hardware (Router, NIC, Computer, etc.) that's more than capable of keeping up... I can't say that I can really 'feel' or 'see' any significant difference "in-world" when running SL between setting it at 1500 or 3000 (which is where I've had it set soon after switching to Phoenix a couple of months ago from SL v. 1.23 @ 1500)... which (thinking out loud to self) would almost seem to support that the cap is 1500 (and perhaps not 3000).

Excellent replies by all to Dark's original post/question, btw.

Yes PelleLaccio - I agree that the posts have been most helpful and kind and I really appreciate that. Thank you as well for the info on the 3000 cap. Every bit of info has it's uses when compiled into the overall idea of "What The Heck Is Going On" Scenario... LOL...

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For those wanting to know how fast bits are flowing in and out of their machine, NetMeter is a nifty utility, available here : http://www.metal-machine.de/readerror/index.php. This is the 1.1.4 Beta version but i have been using the 1.1.3 release for years (still available here : http://netmeter.en.softonic.com/). The nice thing is that NetMeter can be set up to be displayed on top of the SL viewer window (not in full screen mode of course).

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Thibaud Merlin wrote:

For those wanting to know how fast bits are flowing in and out of their machine, NetMeter is a nifty utility, available here : http://www.metal-machine.de/readerror/index.php. This is the 1.1.4 Beta version but i have been using the 1.1.3 release for years (still available here : http://netmeter.en.softonic.com/). The nice thing is that NetMeter can be set up to be displayed on top of the SL viewer window (not in full screen mode of course).

I've had NetMeter for a short bit, but haven't used it much.  Will it isolate the data coming into the computer by application or port so that I can see truly what is coming from SL?

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