Trouble connecting, yet full bars for wifi?

[Rolig Loon]

First, note that Linden Lab says,"Second Life is not compatible with dial-up internet, satellite internet, or some wireless internet services. Occasionally these types of connection may work with Second LIfe, but Linden Lab is unable to support them or to address issues related to their use. For the best Second Life experience, always use a hard-wired DSL or cable connection."

Then, note that Second Life is a lot more demanding than facebook, browsing Google, watching YouTube videos, and playing most on-line games.  SL's environment changes constantly, so updates are streamed between your computer and the SL servers 45 times a second.  It's not enough to have good bandwidth.  Success with SL means having a strong, reliable connection that does not drop random bits of data and does not let your computer and the servers get out of sync.  Many people have no trouble at all with wifi, but your risk of poor performance increases when you use it. At the very least, reboot your router and modem by unbplugging them from the power for a few minutes to clear their RAM.  Then plug things back in and restart everything.  For more advanced suggestions, read Nalates's blog at http://blog.nalates.net/2011/10/26/troubleshoot-your-sl-connection/ .

[Rolig Loon]

First, note that Linden Lab says,"Second Life is not compatible with dial-up internet, satellite internet, or some wireless internet services. Occasionally these types of connection may work with Second LIfe, but Linden Lab is unable to support them or to address issues related to their use. For the best Second Life experience, always use a hard-wired DSL or cable connection."

Then, note that Second Life is a lot more demanding than facebook, browsing Google, watching YouTube videos, and playing most on-line games.  SL's environment changes constantly, so updates are streamed between your computer and the SL servers 45 times a second.  It's not enough to have good bandwidth.  Success with SL means having a strong, reliable connection that does not drop random bits of data and does not let your computer and the servers get out of sync.  Many people have no trouble at all with wifi, but your risk of poor performance increases when you use it. At the very least, reboot your router and modem by unbplugging them from the power for a few minutes to clear their RAM.  Then plug things back in and restart everything.  For more advanced suggestions, read Nalates's blog at http://blog.nalates.net/2011/10/26/troubleshoot-your-sl-connection/ .

[Nalates Urriah]

Rolig gave a good answer.

REMEMBER: Having a good Internet connection is not the same has having a good connection to the SL servers. So, follow the link Rolig provided to my site and run through the testing steps to test your connection to SL servers.

ALSO, the Internet is not a single thing. It is made of millions of devices and provides thousands of different pathways from point A to B. There are people and computers deciding how to route traffic 24x7. Your connection pathway to SL may be the same for days or change several times in one secession. Or it may even use multiple paths at the same time. It changes faster than we can test. But, it can also fix on one path and use it for months... The point being it is hard to know what your connection is doing at any given time.

WiFi is at the mercy of radio interference. A blender in your kitchen, next door, across the street... a ham radio operator, a police car, fire truck, ambulance, people on cell phones... these are not SUPPOSED to interfere, but they can. Then there is house wiring, fluorescent lights, the new light bulbs, transmission lines near your home, ...it goes on and on.

There there is 'traffic'. How many people in our area are using the net. From about 3PM PT to 9PM Internet traffic is high and there can be congestion problems. If all your neighbors are watching Netflix, that could be a problem. Wile network managers try to balance the load and reduce congestion Net Neutrality is rumored to be reducing the funds needed for more management.

A basic trouble shooting step is to connect by wire to see if it is the wifi or not. If connection by wire does not solve the problem then the rest of the connection pathway has to be tested.

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The wifi password affects your connection to the Internet. (Period) If you can get to Facebook, you have a connection. Therefore your wifi password is good. You are either on or off the net. If on, then it is a matter of how good the connection is.

[Innula Zenovka]

In addition to Rolig's excellent points, the wifi bars indicate there is a good connection between your device and the router.

The error message from SL is telling you that there's a problem somewhere between the router and LL's servers.   

The two have nothing much to do with each other.   I sometimes get a similar error message on my desktop connection to SL. When that happens, I simply try again in five minutes or, if that doesn't work, do as Rolig suggests and reboot the router.   This establishes a new connection between my router and LL's servers, and usually does the trick.