Sith Soulstar Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 (edited) Hi everyone! This started almost a year ago, practically overnight, around the time of an update. I have been trying everything I can think of, hoping it would fix things, but nothing is improving. Contacting LL doesn't help (because, let's face it : they don't really give a damn). So this is the problem : When I teleport to a place (5 to 20 avatars around, most just standing still), it can literally take me up 15 minutes before everybody and everything is rezzed (on lowest settings). Last year it took me about 5 seconds (on ultra settings). My FPS is mostly somewhere around 60. BUT : My packet loss (according to my viewer) is mostly around 12%!!! and ping is mostly around 400 ms. The odd thing is that when I check packet loss and ping to an SL sim with the prompt commands "ping" and "tracert", it gives me 0.0% packet loss and 180 ms ping! If anybody could tell me what is going on, I'd really appreciate it because after 11 years on SL this is REALLY taking the fun out of it. My PC : cpu : intel I7-3820 / GPU : Nvidia GTX 1070 / RAM : 32GB (1600 Mhz) / OS : Windows 8.1 64-bit. My internet (+/-) : Ping 17ms / 15MB down / 2 MB up // Speedtest to Phoenix (AZ) : Ping 180ms / 13MB down / 1.8MB up. Thanks for your time! Edited May 28, 2018 by Sith Soulstar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleMe Jewell Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 4 hours ago, Sith Soulstar said: BUT : My packet loss (according to my viewer) is mostly around 12%!!! and ping is mostly around 400 ms. Wow, consider yourself lucky if you can stay connected at all. What is your network bandwidth set to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whirly Fizzle Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 What firewall & antivirus software are you using? Certain antivirus software can cause extreme slow rezzing & connection issues on SL, most notably Webroot. Do you have the same problem with a different viewer? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sith Soulstar Posted May 28, 2018 Author Share Posted May 28, 2018 (edited) @ LittleMe : I've tried all kind of different settings and none seem to make a difference. I usually have it set to 1500. Interesting fact here is that I never crash. Also teleporting is pretty fast and never gives me any trouble. It's just that, when I arrive, it takes me that long before everything is rezzed properly. @ Whirly : I have Norton as Firewall and Antivirus, but I've had that for years and it never gave me any trouble. I also tried completely disabling that but that doesn't make any difference. I use Firestorm but I also tried the original SL viewer, Singularity and Black Dragon. The problem is exactly the same on all viewers. Extra info : I joined 3 different ISP's and the problem remained with all 3. My current ISP did some tests and according to them there is something wrong once my connection hops to the Linden Labs servers. For those familiar with it : When I execute a "tracert" command to a SL sim, the results I get show hops from my location (Spain) to France, Germany, England, the US, and then I get 3 to 5 time-outs (that's bad. Lol). Of course Linden Labs persists that nothing is wrong on their end, so I don't know any more :-S Edited May 28, 2018 by Sith Soulstar 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whirly Fizzle Posted May 29, 2018 Share Posted May 29, 2018 (edited) Do you have another computer in the house connected to the same home network/router? If so, do you have the same problem on the other computer? If you have a cell phone with internet capability, if you connect via the cellular network via a mobile hotspot with your usual computer, do you have the same problem? If you normally connect over wifi, try wiring up & see if that fixes it. If you normally use a wired connection, try connecting over wifi & see if that fixes it. Those test will hopefully narrow the problem down further & point to either a specific computer, specific network, specific network hardware or a faulty network cable or crappy wifi as the cause. Edited May 29, 2018 by Whirly Fizzle 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sith Soulstar Posted May 29, 2018 Author Share Posted May 29, 2018 @Whirly Fizzle Thanks for the help. I tried SL on my (12 year old) laptop. Same problem there. Although it's old and 'crappy', SL isn't even worse on my laptop. Lol. It's just equally bad. Not sure how to connect my desktop PC to the internet using my cell phone, so I'll look into this and get back to you on this. I connect using a wired connection and I don't have wifi on my desktop computer, so I can't try using wifi. However, my old laptop can use wifi and if I connect it over wifi or use a wired connection it doesn't make a difference. To make sure it's not my cable, I used 4 different cables to connect to the internet, but it's all the same. Note 1 : It seems today for some unknown reason my packet loss (according to the statistics bar in the viewer) is suddenly down to about 2%!!! I haven't had a packet loss this low in almost a year! Is Linden Labs reading this post and finally doing something about it? Lol! Wondering how long it'll last... Note 2 : About 6 months ago I updated my BIOS and that seemed to seriously improve it, almost to the point that the problem was as good as solved, but after 2 days the problem returned. So I'm not sure if updating my BIOS worked (temporarily) or if SL just happened to love me for those 2 days. I have been thinking that maybe my CPU is getting too old, but after some research I concluded that it should normally be more than powerful enough to play SL without any problems. Right? (Intel i7-3820) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sith Soulstar Posted May 29, 2018 Author Share Posted May 29, 2018 @Whirly Fizzle I just connected to SL via the cellular network of both my own phone and the phone of my wife (2 different providers). Same packet loss, much higher ping (up to +5000ms). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whirly Fizzle Posted May 29, 2018 Share Posted May 29, 2018 Did you try switching to Google DNS yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sith Soulstar Posted May 29, 2018 Author Share Posted May 29, 2018 @Whirly Fizzle Yes, I did that ages ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sith Soulstar Posted May 29, 2018 Author Share Posted May 29, 2018 (edited) Just did a little timing... Teleported to a small skybox with 4 avatars around. Lowest FPS : 39. Once rezzed it stabilized around 105. Average packet loss : 7.7%. Once rezzed it stabilized at 7.2%. Ping sim : from 400 to 1277 ms but mostly around 600 to 700 ms. Once rezzed it stabilized around 600 ms. Time to rezz my surroundings : 2 minutes. Time to rezz all 4 avatars : 6 minutes. Not a bad day actually... (sad, I know) Edited May 29, 2018 by Sith Soulstar Added extra info 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sith Soulstar Posted June 2, 2018 Author Share Posted June 2, 2018 Just throwing it out there... I opened 2 viewers at the same time, small windows, allowing me to place the statistics bar next to each other and make a screenshot. On the left is the statistics bar of the first viewer I opened, on the right the second one. How can my Packet loss in viewer 1 be 6.1% and in viewer 2 'only' 0.6%??? This just gets weirder although I guess I shouldn't be complaining since my packet loss stayed under 10% these last few days... :-S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whirly Fizzle Posted June 3, 2018 Share Posted June 3, 2018 It may make a difference which viewer has focus. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solar Legion Posted June 3, 2018 Share Posted June 3, 2018 (edited) 25 minutes ago, Whirly Fizzle said: It may make a difference which viewer has focus. It does. When not in focus the Second Life client (nearly all variants) tends to 'sleep' or otherwise reduce memory and other 'active' processes. Though this may also be OS level as well. As for the OP: From the sound of it there are a few nodes between you and Linden Lab's servers that simply aren't functioning properly - and apparently haven't for some time. Not much you or Linden Lab can do about it. Edited June 3, 2018 by Solar Legion 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sith Soulstar Posted June 3, 2018 Author Share Posted June 3, 2018 Nope, it doesn't matter which viewer I focus on. I can run either one in full screen mode and minimize the other one and the numbers will stay about the same. Also : both avatars are standing inworld next to each other, so it's not the sim ; and both avatars have the same avatar complexity (they're twins, even wearing the same HUDS). And about the nodes not functioning... I'm afraid it must be something like that and I'll have to learn to live with it. It just sucks having the world rezz in 5 to 10 seconds on ultra settings one day and the next day and ever since, having to wait for 10 to 15 minutes on low settings :-(. On the bright side : I'll probably spend less and less time (and money) in SL until I eventually just stop playing it all together. After 11 years it starts getting boring any way and these problems are really taking the last bit of fun I had left out of it. Thanks any way for trying guys! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lillith Hapmouche Posted June 3, 2018 Share Posted June 3, 2018 Perhaps I have skipped over it if it has been stated before, but do you see massively longer loading times with ultra settings, compared to the lower ones? If you have to wait that long, at least let it look pretty. And did you thoroughly nag your ISP to check your line? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sith Soulstar Posted June 3, 2018 Author Share Posted June 3, 2018 (edited) @Lillith Hapmouche To make sure I just ran a test, comparing low settings to ultra settings. On both settings I have today a packet loss of +13% and a ping of +/- 400ms. FPS is also the same on both (50+). Rezzing times are about the same on both settings BUT : on ultra, more things rezz faster in the beginning than they do on low settings and near the end when everything is almost rezzed, it happens slower on ultra than on low settings. Looks like ultra settings start things of pretty fast but then slowing down a lot near the end, where low settings has a steady pase from start til finish. As for my ISP : I tried 3 different ones in the past year and it's all the same. My wife works for my current ISP and she asked them to run some tests so I may hope they really did everything they could. They said it's a Linden Lab servers problem and I think that's also what my traceroute command tells me. I'll add a pic of my traceroute just in case anybody gets any wiser from that (erased part of the first 4 steps for privacy reasons). Usually it gives me 3 or 4 time outs ; today only 2. Edited June 3, 2018 by Sith Soulstar Added FPS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klytyna Posted June 4, 2018 Share Posted June 4, 2018 6 hours ago, Sith Soulstar said: They said it's a Linden Lab servers problem and I think that's also what my traceroute command tells me. I'll add a pic of my traceroute just in case anybody gets any wiser from that (erased part of the first 4 steps for privacy reasons). Usually it gives me 3 or 4 time outs ; today only 2. Often as not a "Request timed out" doesn't indicate a problem at all, just that the server in question isn't set up to ANSWER traceroute requests at all. Your biggest ping hike is steps 8 to 9... That suggests *A* problem (but possibly not the only problem) is somewhere in the US, along the route from the east coast where your Spanish net traffic arrives on American soil, and the Western States where LL live. One of those "ISP Choke-Cross-Border Traffic Feuds" that certain Murican ISP's are slightly infamous for. Odds are your ISP can't do a damn thing about that, likely ALL Spanish ISP's follow the same route to the States. Further, rez times are based off the CDN, not your direct connection to LL, so you'd want to look at the state of the CDN provision for Spain. What is the bandwidth throttle setting in your viewer? Please tell me it's under 1000! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sith Soulstar Posted June 4, 2018 Author Share Posted June 4, 2018 @Klytyna My bandwith is currently set to 1400. I also tried 3000, 1000, 500, 200 and even as low as 50. None of these settings improve anything ; SL just gets even slower when I lower the bandwith while my ping and packet loss stay the same. I still don't understand why I seem to be the only one having this problem. I talked to other people from Spain (some even with the same ISP) and they don't seem to have this problem while most of them have a system that's older and a lot weaker than mine. Made me to believe something in my PC was broken but I checked everything and it's all running great. Last but not least : you might be on to something with that CDN (no idea what it is or how to check it -let alone improve it-, but I've heard it being mentioned before). No matter my ping and packet loss, my rezz times don't really improve all that much when those numbers are lower. But then again : I'm guessing all of Europe makes a connection to the USA through that same line (as far as I know it's the only line) and still it only seems to be affecting me :-S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klytyna Posted June 4, 2018 Share Posted June 4, 2018 2 hours ago, Sith Soulstar said: My bandwith is currently set to 1400. I also tried 3000, 1000, 500, 200 and even as low as 50. The viewer bandwidth throttle controls the rate at which the viewer exchanges idle gossip with the sim server about where you are standing, the time of day, which asset server is doing which sim servers wife on the sly, whatever... Set it too high, and they gossip so much the viewer doesn't have any time left to do be doing, rezzing stuff... Set it too low, and the server forgets you are online and logs you out... 500-1000 is a good ballpark. 2 hours ago, Sith Soulstar said: Last but not least : you might be on to something with that CDN (no idea what it is or how to check it -let alone improve it-, but I've heard it being mentioned before). Rezzing ingredients, textures and mesh etc., are delivered via http over the CDN (Content Delivery Network), which isn't operated by LL, it's a series of servers around the world, operated by a subcontractor, the idea being that content like textures etc., gets delivered to sl users from a COMPARATIVELY local web based server, rather than being sucked down direct from San Francisco. It might be that the nearest cdn server to you is down, or just a bit crap, or that the traceroute from you to said cdn server is full of laggy holes. It could be as simple as bad connections in the cable from your town to the nearest Spanish CDN server to you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel1206 Posted June 4, 2018 Share Posted June 4, 2018 2 hours ago, Sith Soulstar said: ...But then again : I'm guessing all of Europe makes a connection to the USA through that same line (as far as I know it's the only line) and still it only seems to be affecting me :-S. Have you tried to flush your DNS and renew the addresses? ipconfig /flushdns ipconfig /renew I assume you use IPv4 and Windows. If you use IPv6, try and use IPv4 instead. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sith Soulstar Posted June 4, 2018 Author Share Posted June 4, 2018 @Klytyna A friend of mine who works in IT is looking into the CDN thing. He told me pretty much the same as you did. He's currently looking into setting up a VPN to see if that helps since it skips a couple of hops. He even talked about trying to access LL servers via Asia instead of via the eastcoast of the US. Not sure if going through Asia is going to do any good, but still... We can try :-). I'll report back here once I get some results from that VPN. @Rachel1206 Yes, I flushed my DNS a couple of times already. Just did it again but still no change. And yes I'm on IPv4 and Windows :-). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
velvetgurl Posted June 4, 2018 Share Posted June 4, 2018 On 6/4/2018 at 4:15 PM, Sith Soulstar said: @Klytyna A friend of mine who works in IT is looking into the CDN thing. He told me pretty much the same as you did. He's currently looking into setting up a VPN to see if that helps since it skips a couple of hops. He even talked about trying to access LL servers via Asia instead of via the eastcoast of the US. Not sure if going through Asia is going to do any good, but still... We can try :-). I'll report back here once I get some results from that VPN. @Rachel1206 Yes, I flushed my DNS a couple of times already. Just did it again but still no change. And yes I'm on IPv4 and Windows :-). try cloudflare dns service, see how that does its free to use and simple to configure, instructions are available on youtube x 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sith Soulstar Posted June 4, 2018 Author Share Posted June 4, 2018 @binder59 I looked into Cloudflare but I don't see how that would help. I'd have to set up my own website? I tried adding www.secondlife.com but got the message that "this zone is banned". Think I better wait until I get news from my friend. Lol... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
velvetgurl Posted June 5, 2018 Share Posted June 5, 2018 On 6/4/2018 at 10:47 PM, Sith Soulstar said: @binder59 I looked into Cloudflare but I don't see how that would help. I'd have to set up my own website? I tried adding www.secondlife.com but got the message that "this zone is banned". Think I better wait until I get news from my friend. Lol... strange because i use there dns and i can get i get here no problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
velvetgurl Posted June 5, 2018 Share Posted June 5, 2018 On 6/4/2018 at 4:15 PM, Sith Soulstar said: @Klytyna A friend of mine who works in IT is looking into the CDN thing. He told me pretty much the same as you did. He's currently looking into setting up a VPN to see if that helps since it skips a couple of hops. He even talked about trying to access LL servers via Asia instead of via the eastcoast of the US. Not sure if going through Asia is going to do any good, but still... We can try :-). I'll report back here once I get some results from that VPN. @Rachel1206 Yes, I flushed my DNS a couple of times already. Just did it again but still no change. And yes I'm on IPv4 and Windows :-). thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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