Why does my viewer keep hanging on the 'logging in' stage of the log in process?

[greebocat]

I've tried to log into SL repeatedly for the last hour or so and seem to always get the same issue - the log in process hangs at the 'logging in' stage and never progresses beyond that stage. I thought it could be a grid - wide issue but nothing is showing in the grid status reports and I've checked traffic, which is showing pretty constant (without the sharp drop in population one might expect when a grid - wide problem occurs).

I have run a clean install on both Firestorm and SL viewers and am still getting the same issue. I *did* get in on one occasion but it kicked me out after less than a minute. My account is active, my internet connection is fine and I haven;t been seeing any error messages etc. Can anyone offer any suggestions I might try?

[Nalates Urriah]

Realize it is Tuesday, the morning they roll server updates to the main channel, meaning 80% of the grid is being updated and restarted. This throws heavey loads on the asset system and other backend services. Expect problems. Expect regions to be down and reject logins. 

You can check whether there is a rollout planned/happening in the SL Fourm. In the TECH section look for Deploys.

Oddly even though regions are restarting, not that many people log off. The five-minute warnings allow them to tp somewhere else. So, you may not see a drop in concurrent users.

When you do see a typical concurrent user count (29,000 2AM growing to 60,000 by 2PM then cyling down to repeat again) you know logins and the grid in general is working. If two viewers are failing, that pretty much eliminates the viewer as a problem. Restart the computer, gateway, and router, if you have a router. Then look for network problems.

Realize that a good Internet connection does not mean you have a good connection to SL's servers. http://blog.nalates.net/2011/10/26/troubleshoot-your-sl-connection/ - check your connection to SL.

Remember. There is a cyberwar going on and several countries are attacking US computer systems. Expect outages. Gmail went down last week from a hack. Check the site Cyber War Zone for daily updates.

While one of your first troubleshooting steps should always be to look at GRID STATUS,  don't think an empty status report means there is no grid wide problem. The Lindens may be too busy with the problem to post for 1 or 2 hours.

Grid status shows a problem from 10 AM to 10:40 AM. Your post was madein the middle of it. That they started fixing at 10 does not mean that is when the problem started. It is just when they started that particular correctiive action.

Before you start ripping out viewers and flushing caches, which these days just aggravates the problems for everyone and often doesn't fix anything - as you found out, give it an hour or two. Hang in the fourm or help in ANSWERS. As you watch postings you quite often will see others compaining about the same problem well before Grid Status has any news.

For future troubleshooting get and save server name. Use it to test your connection to SL if you can't get in.

Always try logging into regions other than Last region or Home region. Pooley and Furball are Linden owned regions you can try. Find a region in one of the RC channel regions. Those regions do not update until Wednesday. They make good candidates for a Tuesday login when you have problems.

The least likely problem source is your viewer installs. If they worked yesterday, and not today... yoursoftware is the least likely source of the problem. The network is our most common source of problems.