Peggy Paperdoll

I believe it will run SL but I also believe you may be disappointed in the graphics performance. I know the Intel HD3000 intergrated video adapter will run SL so I'm sure the HD4000 will too. But the video being intergrated (in this case into the CPU chipset instead of the motherboard) it has not dedicated video RAM. Sony calls it "Internal" but that is just a different way to saying it's "shared". All the video RAM the graphics is going to need for rendering the scenes around you in SL is going to be taken from your system RAM (which is 6 GB on your computer). Some of the rendering you will encounter in SL will want 1 GB. That would leave 3 GB for your operating system and any other programs you need to be running while in SL (like firewall, antivirus, any spyware, etc). My Windows 7 uses about 1.5 GB of RAM without any other stuff running.........you're probably needs slightly more due to the laptop's need to conserve battery power and other processes that laptops require over a desktop (I run a desktop). I can see your system RAM being pretty much used up when running SL.......that may or may not be a problem but I always like to see some overhead on resources to act as a cushion. Once your system uses up the RAM it starts using virtual RAM which is a portion of your hard drive to hold data that the RAM can't hold........that is 100's slower than RAM and it will slow stuff down a lot (even to the point of dropping your connection to the servers or crashing SL). That computer can handle 8 GB max.........I would max it out. Other than that, I'm sure it will run SL at med settings. Your frame rates and rez times will not be anything to bragg about but it shouldn't be too bad.

If you are concerned that someone accessed your account then, by all means, change your password immediately. Don't use a password that is easily guessed (use a strong one with capital letters and small case letters, numbers and a couple of symbols such as $,#, %, etc). And never share that password with anyone.......not even your best, most trusted friend in SL or RL It's very hard for anyone to hack the LL servers to gain that access (it's only happened one time that I know of in the over 10 years SL's been existance.....that shows the servers are pretty well protected). But, accounts are compromised occassionally which is always by someone gaining access to another's account by finding out the password (they already have half of the required log in information since that is your username). Phishing scams can get you and often does trick people into giving the password for such things and getting lindens for taking surveys, or purchasing lindens at third party sites.......it you've fallen for that scam no one is going to fault you but they will caution you to be very careful about those "easy to get something" sites (the age old expression "if it sounds too good to be true, it likely is" and you should always pay attention to those words of wisdom).

I want to second Nyil's congraduations on resolving your problem. And, also, a great big "Thank you" for posting what you did to fix the sort of unusual problem you have been experiencing......I'm sure your detailed avenue to the solution will be of help for others with the problem. It's not often that people come back and post their solution to problems for the benefit of others. If I could give you more than 1 kudo I would.

I'm going to disagree with Chic a little bit. LL does listen to the residents about building "blocks". When SL was created LL provided the basic blocks that everyone has to use to build in SL. Flexible prims were introduced somewhere around 2007 (I think). They introduced sculpties to cover what many builders requested for creating unique shapes for building which, in turn, reduced prim counts. They then introduced mesh not too long ago to fill the remaining void the builders wanted and needed. It takes server code modification to utilize each building block introduced......it's much more than just giving the tool to the residents to use. Things have to be thought out before hand, code written, tested and finally introduced. Rules for usage have to be established to avoid at much abuse as possible. LL's very basic concept for SL is for the users to create the content (which is what makes SL so attractive to builders and artists) so they really don't privide the blocks anymore......they give a platform that supports building blocks the users can create themselves. Those basic blocks are very likely all you'll ever see LL provide.......ever. You may see LL provide a platform that supports more blocks than what's available today but it's going to be up to the users to use that platform to create their own building blocks. BTW, I'm pretty sure mesh can do exactly what you discribed.........so why not get a 3D modeling program and make that block yourself? I know it not the same as LL doing it for you but LL provides a way for you to get what you want......and much more. It's up to you though to do it.

I don't think it's that complicated personnally. What it looks like is that someone guessed your friend's password (or you friend shared it with someone) and while you were with your friend they logged in. You and your friend may have the same log in location set in your viewers or maybe you and your friend were at the same place when you both last logged out of SL and have log into "Last location" set in your viewers. As has been mentioned, if you don't have a strong password (one that is difficult to guess or figure out) then it might be easy for someone to log in with your avatar.........they already have half the necessary log in information which is your username. Things people tend to do with passwords is create one that is very easy to remember. Lots of people pick the name of their pet then without really thinking about it mention how much they love their new kitten named "Lilly"........anyone wanting to get in your account might think that "Lilly" is your password and they would be correct. And, of course, as Karen mentioned some people choose "password" for their password (actully, according to a survey I read just a few months ago "password" is one of the most common passwords people use). Change the password right now........it may be too late. If someone can access your SL account and log in as you, they also can access your dashboard and have access to all your personal information you provided to LL.......including your payment information (credit card information or PayPal information). If you suspect that then notify LL and the financial institution that supports your payment method.

I'm going to give this my best shot. Before I do, I have to tell you that I'm no expert by anyone's definition......almost all my experience with computers and software comes from reading on the Internet and then attempting to fix what I'm trying to fix myself (I've messed up more operating systems and programs than most people......call me brave or foolish. I'll admit to both). I Googled VFS (virtual file system). I found a Wiki article that is sort of technical but not so much that it's incomprehensible. After reading the article with your problem in mind I found two possible sources that could be at the root of the issue. The first being that you did not say if your XP is 32 bit or 64 bit instruction set. You're CPU is a 64 bit processor but I know XP came in both flavors (either XP Pro x32 or XP Pro x64). That is determined by the specific XP system that was installed on the computer (either initially or by some reinstallation at a later time). Some recovery and full license disks have both versions and some don't.......if you don't have an x64 version then I would not worry too much about this suggestion (number 1 reason is that you are not likely to find a legal copy of XP anymore since Microsoft has set a date for discontinuing support for the OS). But, there may be an option to convert the x32 to x64 either on the recovery/license disk that you have (I know my old XP Home Premium did have that conversion....but that was years ago). X64 systems have been around long enough now that the chances of loosing any program by making the conversion is very low........I would try that myself. The other thing (that I do think could be a factor) is that you also did not specify if your XP Pro's file system is FAT (file allocation table) either x32 or x64 or NTSF (new technology file system). The older Windows OS's grew up based on the ancient DOS (disk operating system) developed by IBM for the first generation PC's (personal computers) and later "improved" by Microsoft with the MS-DOS) systems. Beginning with XP you could install either FAT or NTSF on your computer. I initially installed FAT 32 on my old computer when I moved up to XP from Win ME then later, during one of my many re-installs of XP I went with the NTSF.........things in XP suddenly started working better and I went from wondering why everyone was so in love with XP to a believer (I actually thought XP was worse than ME which everyone hated). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_file_system The reason I think the NTSF (if you are still on a FAT system) might be the problem is after reading the Wiki I linked to I saw that Sun Microsystems developed VFS for Unix based system (Mac and Linux for the home users) and later added support for DOS based systems (Windows). That indicates to me that the FAT system was an after thought. Though NTSF is not Unix based it's much more in line with the more efficient Unix systems.........plus Microsoft was well aware of the necessity to support VFS when they developed the file system (VFS wasn't even thought about when DOS came about). Patching up software to address a problem after the fact is never as good as addressing the problem from the ground up in development. I can't remember whether or not you can convert from FAT to NTSF without reinstalling XP (it's been years ago and when I coverted I did at a reinstallation is all I remember about making the change). And one other suggestion that might be easier and less scary. I pretty sure your recovery/intallation disks have an option to repair or reinstall the system. You might want to "repair" and see if that fixes the problem. There is always the possibility that something damaged one of the system files that a repair would fix......and that would certainly be more painless than diving in head first like I often do . I'm sorry I can't be more helpful. After reading all that you've done so far and nothing's worked and the fact that your problem isn't just one viewer I don't think it's a viewer problem or a driver problem.......and that leaves a system problem. Not the best of news, I know........but I've got to be honest. Keep in mind that XP's days are limited. It just might be time to consider a new computer (or, at least, a new operating system). Good luck.

No, you didn't name any names and you didn't indicate where this place was. But you did imply that anyone who places no fly on their land is guilty of "the dumbest restriction ever". It irritatated you (at least at that moment, though from your initial post, it appears that it has irritated you in the past (and will continue to irritate you in the future). That's all fine and dandy.......there are more than just a few restrictions and conditions that owners place on their property that irritate me. But I don't call them out with Is 'No Fly' the dumbest restriction ever? titled threads. That is disrespectful to anyone who uses no fly for what ever reason they choose. You just told the entire forum that (according to you) they are dumb.....which is next to telling the forum that those people are stupid. That is disrespectful...........in most people's books anyway.

With purchasing 5 routers over the last 10 (maybe 11) years, every one was wireless and ever one was ready to go wirelessly. You have to go into the setup utility to turn wireless off........it's on by default. If it weren't on then router techs would be pulling their hair out with calls from almost every purchaser of the router. Wireless is hyped to death...........and if the customer had to enter setup to turn it on, the comsumers would be livid. I'm talking about routers for a home network. I know commericial routers come in different flavors. I've been in a very large server room (one that served the entire western United States with network and cable television).......nothing was wireless. And the routers had 48 to 96 RJ-45 connections for the servers to connect to...........and then those routers were feeding into more routers. Thousands of servers all brought down to a single fiber optic cable to go out to the entire world. It's impressive. It's not patently false. Most home routers are both wireless and wired (usually with 4 RJ-45 output connectors and up to 20 wireless connections. That's the typical router most people would use. Wireless in on by default............the newer routers are secured by default (but the older ones have to be manually "locked down" using the configuration ulitiy in the router's setup).

I own my router (and my modem too). My router is a Linksys and I just got it about a month ago.........it has both a network name (it doesn't say "Linksys" like the ones I've had in the past did) and a passcode for wireless connections. It's defaulted to secure instead of wide open like the older routers. And yes that is a good thing.....configuring routers used to be a real pain in the butt (but I suffered through that pain to lock the routers down every time). The nice thing about this router is that I have a setup up disk that is copied to a flash drive so I can easily add another computer......and change the name and passcode at will. I always changed the "admin" password when I replaced my router or had to reset it to factory defaults. I hated doing that so I'm happy now that I don't have to do it (well, I still have to change passcodes but it's easy now ).

"... In there it says that max bandwidth is not about steaming media and audio. So believe it or not. Media and Audio don't come from LL servers so it makes sense to me. ... ----------------------------------------- Absolutely. The max bandwidth setting in your viewer has nothing to do with media or voice. The veiwer's setting tells the LL servers how much bandwidth to send to you when your turn comes up for data depending on where you are on the grid, your view distance, and other factors that require the servers to send to any viewer. If your tested speed in 1,000 kbps and you have your viewer set to recieve 1,000 kbps then the servers will send 1,000 kbps (when it's possible since the servers are serving more than just you). If you are recieving that max bandwidth that you set in preferences and you want to view some streaming media, use voice (and even listen to some internet radio station) you won't be able to do it.........you will likely get disconnected and possibly even crash. Your tested speed won't handle the extra bandwidth those services require. That's the reason you should always allow for some overhead so that you have the bandwidth available for those services. If you are close to 1,000 kbps tested speed it matters........if you are like me with consistant 25,000 kbps it really doesn't matter what I set the bandwidth to in preferences (I have a couple thousand times the required overhead for those services). The bandwidth setting in preference is a source of many misconceptions (as well as confusion). In the older viewers LL had a max setting of 1500 kbps.....that was realistic since the servers can probably deliver that much and a decent cable connection can certainly handle it easily. Now you have settins on the bandwidth meter that go upwards of 1,000 mbps (that's a gigabit.........a billion bits per second!!!). The servers will never send that much to.......especially when the servers are servers multiple accounts and sims have thousands of textures and objects. Viewers with such high settings are like that old VW Beetle with a speedometer that showed 120 mph...........down the Grapevine on the Bakersfield side of the Cajon pass, maybe with your foot solidly planted on the accellarator all the way to the floor board (maybe even denting the floor board). It's disceptive in that it implies you can get more by simply setting the meter higher....that's not true. You'll never get more than the servers will deliver.......you won't get more than your connection speed allows either. And if you tell the servers to send data that excedes your connection speed and the servers actually send that much, you wind up with problems. Problems that usually cause a disconnect and sometimes will crash your viewer.

You should be okay with pretty much any bandwidth setting you want in preferences and have plenty or overhead for voice and media. Like I said, I use 1200 kbps and that allows 30 FPS in all but the most busy or areas (where I consistantly get around 20 FPS). Once you get as much as the servers will send you're whistling in the dark by trying to get more (it just ain't going to make a spit's worth of difference....except maybe to make you feel good).

That's true but most people have a smart phone, tablet or printer that they want to connect to the network with. I have a smart phone and my significant other has a smart phone and an iPad plus my printer is shared by myself and my significant other....it would be a mess if I had to connect everything with an Ethernet cable.......not to mention that would require a switch in addition to my router. Wireless has it's use (and without it, you're really limiting yourself). Just secure your network.......and don't try to use SL with it.

Since LL increased the limit to 42 the demand for more almost stopped immediately ( haven't seen a thread like yours since the limit was 25). I would say LL has come up with a reasonable number for the vast majority of users. Sure, some would want more (or even unlimited as you want) but people like me have no use for even 25 groups. I don't know the specifics but, like bringing back last names, there's more than meets the eye about increasing groups. I do know that a group must be linked to the account in the group........that means a lot of changing the database to accommadate such a change. If there is no demand then making that change to please a handful of users is not cost effective and probably not worth the extra server space required to connect all those groups with all those avatars. As in most things computer, a change that seems so simple can (and often is) a really big deal. 42 groups, in my opinion is more than enough for almost anyone. I pruned my groups a long time ago and I seldom have more than 5 that I'm in at any given time (before I was at the max and had to prune on the fly when I realized some of those groups were not active for years).

You're San Francisco test it pretty bad considering your local speed.......I would be calling Comcast tomorrow for answers. But then you might test again in a few hours to see if it's some problem with the test servers. Still the big different from the Philidelpha server to the Dallas and San Francisco is way out of line, in my opinion. You're ping times are enormoust too considering PA to CA is 3000 miles (not necessarily how far in cable miles).........for the Internet that is not really that far. Eurpeans get pings times in that neighborhood and they are much further away from the LL servers than you are.

The 75% number often mentioned is for people with marginal speeds. Say your speed tests out at 1,000 kbps and the LL servers actually deliver that much to your viewer. Your connection will handle that just fine.......until you try to view media or use voice. The LL servers are going to send you that 1,000 kbps as your viewer is requesting be sent. The media and voice requirements will not have enough to work.........LL is taking it all. Media and voice are delivered from sources outside the LL servers (the servers know nothing about what else you want to have delivered to your computer). Setting the maximum with a mimimal connection will cause those services not to work (they may even crash your viewer)........that's the reason for the 75% setting. If you have more than about 2,000 kbps download then you probably can set your bandwidth to the maximum without problems (unless, for some reason, the LL servers start sending you that maximum.....then you have the problem of not having the overhead to deal with voice or media). I also want to add one more thing to my first post about wireless connections. All routers designed for home use are wireless. So even if you connect with an Ethernet cable (a Cat5e cable) your router will still transmit and recieve wirelessly......you need to lock down the router regardless of whether or not you actually connect wirelessly. Anyone with a wireless computer or smart phone within the range of the router can connect if it's wide open........and you probably would not know it unless you actually looked (which most will never think to do). You neighbor who lives in a basement (and you never see or even know about) could be downloading child pornography on your connection.........the FBI comes knocking your door, not his.

As a rule of thumb you would never want to set your bandwidth in your preferences to more than about 80% of your tested speed (75% is often mentioned and, to be honest, that's probably a better number). 80% of 16 mbps is 12 mbps. 12 mbps is way more than the Linden Lab servers will ever send any individual using SL.......my observations and experiments tell me that the LL servers will not send more than about 1.5 mbps under ideal conditions. I'm not sure how high some of the viewers allow one to set the bandwidth but the SL viewer lets you set it as high as 5 mbps (which is higher by about 4 times than I've ever seen the servers send to me.........I haven't played with it for a year or so but I'm pretty sure it hasn't changed much, if at all). I would set the bandwidth to something around 1.2 mbps (1200 kbps) to maybe 1.5 mbps (1500 kbps). That's about the maximum the servers will deliver so setting it higher is doing you no good what so ever. My download tested to the LL servers in San Francisco and Dallas are about 27 mbps and 25 mbps respectively..........to the recommended test server for Speed Test I get 30 mbps on a very consistant basis. To get a truer test do your tests to both San Francisco and Dallas a few times and take the average between both locations. I'm sure your speed will be close to your local test server (a few megs less but still way more than the LL servers will ever send to you). The speed of a wireless connection is not what causes people problems. It's the potential for interference and occassional hiccups with the transmitter/reciever of the wireless set up. When that happens your bandwidth may be good but your packet loss attrocious......packet loss is very disruptive to maintaining a connection to the servers (more so than slow speeds). That's why everyone says to stay away from wireless if, at all, possible. And, if you have to use a wireless network you really should lock down your router.........you are so wide open to thieves and some very unpleasant experiences that you should be scare out of your mind with an open router. Look in your manual on how to secure your network.

You never know why someone set their land to "no fly". It sometimes is not obvious but it also is obvious sometimes too (at least for me it is). My first thought by the way you described the land, is that the person has a sky box and has the no fly set to try to help insure some level of privacy. My plot of mainland has no buildings visible at ground level yet I have two sky platforms and one "photo booth" on the property so someone would think the land is barren. I don't have "no fly" set, but I suppose I could if I chose and you'd question why I did that if happened by looking around like you did when you stumbled across this plot. I don't question why people do what they do anymore............I've learned that people have their reasons (no matter how well founded the reason might be).

A premium membership gives you a few benefits such as the ability to own your own land instead for renting from another resident (only mainland though), an option of having a free Linden Home (that has some restrictions that you don't have if you own your own mainland), access to Premium only sandboxes, a weekly stipend of $L300, access to Live Chat (in addition to a slightly higher priority for Support Tickets). Other than that (plus a few I might have overlooked) a basic enjoys everything else a premium member enjoys. The same ability to join groups, make friends, move around the grid freely, enter contests, plus everything else one can do it SL. No other virtual world (or even online games) gives you so much for absolutely free. Many people don't appreciate that part either.

Optimus is what Intel based computers called the feature designed to save battery usage by automatically switching from the higher comsumption devices, such as discrete video cards, to the lower comsumption onboard graphics chipsets incorporated into the CPU. It's relatively new technology that CPU manufacturers developed to answer the inherent issue of laptops running batteries down quickly with heavy graphics requirements for programs that require graphics (SL certainly falls into that catagory). The switching takes place when the graphics demand is high and has had problems in the past when OpenGL is the graphics platform is used (which SL uses). I believe the problem has, for the most part, been taken care of but, the technology is still quite new and it doesn't always work as advertised. DirectX based graphics don't seem to have the problem to the extent that OpenGL does.......at least the past they didn't. Using the ac adapter/charger when using programs that have high graphics demands, as Natales suggested seems to help make the switch to the discrete card work a little more reliably. SL will not run well at all on the 2450M chipset. SL should work at mid-range preference settings in your viewer using the 525M card. But don't expect "super fast with amazing graphics".........the card is an "entry level" gaming card that will give decent, but not fantastic graphics performance.

I'm not entirely sure what you are saying. But I think you are saying that you are renting sims from someone else (not "purchasing" from Linden Lab). In the past (or maybe it was with a former estate owner who you rented from) you could rent without paying and setup fees or move fees and now you are being asked to pay those fees upfront? I don't think LL has anything to do with your "problem". Linden Lab charges setup fees plus monthly fees (tier) for any sim anyone purchases and those fees have not changed for several years (I've heard of not changes to the policies). For whatever reason the estate owner you are renting from (or the new estate owner you changed to) is no longer absorbing those setup fees. I think you issue is with whoever you are renting from.......not LL. BTW, if you were able to rent or move sims in the past without having to pay those setup fees, I would say consider yourself very lucky to be able to get such a savings of a considerable amount of real money. The gravy train has come to the end of the line, apparently. For the best deal I would think you would be better off dealing directly with LL instead of an estate owner......that way their is no middle man who is going to take a profit (charge you more than LL charges them for the land you rent).

That link sends me to the customization page for a Dell computer. It tells me nothing about what computer you wound up with. All I know (and this is if you didn't change it with the customization) is that you have an i5 CPU with a 2450M on chip video adapter (that's an Intel on CPU chipset graphics accellerator.....not a discrete video card). To give some useful computer specs launch your viewer (no need to log in). Under the "Help" menu click on "About Second L:ife". Copy those specs and paste back here for people to see.

You, as a "comsumer", have to rely on the provider about whether or not anything you see, watch, or download on the Internet is legal. That's extremely difficult to know with any reliability. The way the law is now the provider is responsible for obtaining the required licenses to distribute the content........not the comsumer. The law gets real sticky when the content is actually downloaded to the comsumer's computer. Once it's downloaded and saved to the comsumer's computer the comsumer becomes a potential distributer........and the comsumer must then obtain the required licenses. But, as your question demonstrates, most comsumers don't know about license requirements and who is responsibile for obtaining those licenses. The copyright/intellectual property owners are at a disadvantage and there is an effort in the US Congress to "level the playing field".......those bills similart ot SOPA are examples. Things might change but as it is right now (today) as long as you don't download the content and only view it you are off the hook.......but the provider of that content is very much on the hook. You are not in any violation of the ToS for viewing the content........and not in any violation of any real life law either. Tricky problem.......things can change in an instant.

In June of 2006 LL changed the registration for new sign-ups in a way that it was no longer a requirement to provide any sort of identification and they stopped the one time charge for creating a basic account (speciifically, that day was June 6, 2006......I remember it well). What thatt did was open the grid to a lot of people who were hesitant about joining due the the $9.95 fee...........that was when SL "got on the map", so to speak. I know I did some research back in October, when I joined. I wanted to know who Linden Lab was and if I could trust them with real life identification and my credit card number......I've been a pretty paranoid person about personal ID and financial information for a very, very long time (way before SL). I could not find any information saying anything bad about LL so I took the chance and joined. First as a basic but after about a month I went premium. Of course, I provided honest and truthful information because I knew that LL could track me if they wanted and I was "covering my ass".....if LL turned out to be some rip off then I had the "evidence" right there on my computer and on my ISP's logs (basically, I'm paranoid to some extent......but I'm savvy enough that I know where to curb that paranoia). I was genuinely amazed at the some of the griefers and their boldness about doing things that could get them in trouble......not only with LL but with RL authorities. It's at that point that I "learned" that a thief or a crook doesn't care about authorities in the least........they will lie, steal, and ignore laws in order to do what they want to do. But, that's the hardcore types..........they exist and they will always exist (everywhere.......not just SL). When LL opened the "flood gates" in 2006, not only did we have to deal with those hardcore griefers, you had to deal with the more timid griefers.........but they are not so timid now. They know LL does not know who they are and LL doesn't want to know who they are. And the griefer population in SL exploded. It was a problem when I joined.......it's a huge problem today. And, for that, I point my finger squarely at LL.

"... "1. Age Verification, Back in SL or fixing it so people have to provide an actual ID to Linden Lab to get access to simulators that require it, this would not be shown to anoyne and would stay on file with LL but it would sure the hell prevent abuse and so many griefer accounts." That would be really good thing to have, so that everyone should give an actual ID when making an account." --------------------------------------------------------- Back in 2005 when I first joined SL, you did have to provide some identification plus pay, at least, a one time fee of $9.95 for a basic account (the one time fee was waived if you went Premium when you first started). Everyone in SL up to June 6, 2006 had to provide identification and pay, at least, $9.95 to have an account......either premium or basic. We still had griefers. People lie and use stolen CC's or other fraudulant payment methods. But, you're correct (in my opinion) that griefing would be a lot less of a problem with the griefers were forced to lie instead of recieving the welcoming arms of Linden Lab when the "anyone can join and we don't want to know who you are" took place. Griefing exploded to what it is today.........and, at least, 90% of the blame can be placed squarely in LL's lap.

To avoid paying tier you must own no more than 512 sq meters at any given moment for the current month. 32 sq meters puts you over that first 512 sq meter limit. So, no, you cannot own a Linden Home as long as you also own the 32 meter plot without paying the tier you would pay for a 1024 sq meter land. The Linden Home uses up that first tier free 512 meters. Sell or abandon the 32 meter land before you get a Linden Home.