Clothing Issues

[Zoya Braham]

I use Firestorm 3.2.2.24336, and recently everytime I try to change my outfit, or clothing in general I have to clear my cache and do a character test. What's up with this, and how can I fix it?

[Rolig Loon]

You should rarely need to clear cache and almost never need to do the character test.  It sounds as if you have a chronic connection problem that is preventing avatar appearance data from being updated properly on your own computer and then uploaded to SL where you and others can see it.  If you have been using wireless, this would be a good time to stop.  Wireless is vulnerable to all sorts of RF interference created by everything from cell phones to fluorescent light fixtures, so it's often a problem for SL residents.  That may not be the solution to your problem, but its a good place to start.

Open your Statistics Bar (CTRL + Shift + 1) and look at the Packet Loss and Ping Sim numbers near the top.  Packet loss should be very close to zero and certainly well under 1%.  If it isn';t, you are loosing data somewhere between your machine and SL.  Ping Sim should be less than about 100ms normally, although numbers twice that high are not alarming.  If they are any higher, though, data is taking way too long to travel between you and SL.  There are many possible places that either problem could be. See http://blog.nalates.net/2011/10/26/troubleshoot-your-sl-connection/ for a good overview.  Often the best place to look is your router.  Try simply rebooting it.  Unplug it from the power for a few minutes and then plug it back in again.  That will give it time to clear its RAM and start fresh.  You can also try temporarily bypassing it completely by plugging your Internet cable directly into your modem.  If the problem goes away, you know it was probably in the router.