Ricky Shaftoe

Thanks. I called back my ISP and persuaded them to send me a new router. Can't hurt to try. I also tried logging on an alt to see if the problem is specific to a particular character. Nope; the alt lagged too. A friend suggested I try assigning a custom port number. Didn't help. I also talked to LL's online chat support. They suggested clearing my cache, and if that didn't help, then uninstalling all my viewers, then reinstalling the official viewer. Clearing the cache doesn't help. Then I uninstalled all viewers, and then reinstalled only the official viewer. I do see some improvement, but I've had occasional periods of decent connectivity before, only to have the problem return the next time I log in. Still, I'm holding out hope this might help. Will report developments. Perhaps in the future someone with the same trouble will be spared some time and energy by reading the various fixes I've tried in this thread.

Update: I installed SL viewers on a second machine, a laptop that connects wirelessly. As with this wired PC, the laptop chokes once it runs any SL viewer -- official viewer, Phoenix, or Firestorm. That seems to rule out a hardware problem with my PC, or a problem with a firewall. It seems to be that my router or ISP just does not want to give me a good connection to SL. I've called my ISP about this once, but other than suggesting I upgrade my fiber-optic account, which I've done, they haven't been able to help. I guess I'll start a ticket with LL. Any further suggestions? I'm starting to worry I'll never play SL again.

Thanks for your replies. I recycled my router; no effect. I've tried most (all) of the suggestions at the link you provided (thanks for that). Here are some results and comments. 1. Tracert is helpful. If I'm not logged into an SL viewer, I get 115 ms ping, and the route traces fine. Once I log in for a bit, though, my internet connection virtually shuts down. At first, I see "* request timed out" in the second and third lines of tracert, and on same later ones too. After waiting a little longer, I'll make only one successful connection: the first one, to my router. When this happens, my internet is virtually shut down, except for IMs and laggy chat in SL. I can't web-browse or anything. Usually I get logged off SL too, after half hour or so. 2. This happens ONLY with SL. I can play Star Wars The Old Republic or Diablo 3 for hours with no problem. It doesn't matter which SL viewer I use. 3. Could it be that my Firewall settings are somehow being ultra-fussy with SL and only SL? But I see nothing unusual there; not sure where I'd look, though. Could it be my antivirus (MS Security Essentials) doesn't like the SL viewers? Maybe my ISP doesn't like SL? 4. My tracert results seem to suggest that my network port is okay, doesn't it? (Since I always make the first "jump" from NIC to Router.) Do the results imply that the issue is a connection between my router and the internet? An ISP issue? 5. That said, I do wonder about my network ports. They are built into my motherboard, two of them. A few months ago I switched my cable from one to the other because Windows was saying my network cable was unplugged. But lately I get a slowdown or temporary outage once or twice a day. Maybe I'll buy a PCI network card and try that. 6. According to Task Manager, Firestorm uses 850000K of memory; is that typical? I have 12G on my system (Win7, 64-bit). I don't know what to do next. SL is unplayable for me now, on the eve of my 7th Rez-day to boot!

Thanks for your further reply, Rolig. I'll keep experimenting. But first I think I'll follow Peggy's suggestions. Peggy, I somehow didn't notice your reply when I first responded. Thank you for your suggestions. I will try powercycling the router, as you suggest. If that doesn't fix things, then a call to the ISP, as you suggest. Thanks again, everyone.

Thanks for your replies. Rolig, thanks in particular for that link. Heh, as it happens, I just had found it via Google before posting my inquiry. It has helped me rule out some things. I have one sorta off-the-wall hypothesis. Could a change in Windows 7's DPI settings affect Second Life? I run Windows at 2560x1600 resolution, which makes icons and fonts tiny, so I have enabled the feature allowing you to increase the size of things by 150%. But that feature interferes with some apps. E.g., Diablo 3 won't run correctly with it; it borks the D3 mouse cursor. I don't see how it would interfere with an internet connection, but I'm experimenting by running SL without the DPI increase. SL ran fine when I logged in without it. Probably a coincidence, but I thought I'd mention it in case anyone says "ah ha, that's it!" When I have the internet problem, it's as if all my bandwidth gets sucked up by SL. I can chat in SL, but if I try to do any web browsing outside SL at the same time, I get no response. It's very odd. Any further comments or advice would be welcome.

Hi all, I've been using Second LIfe for years without much trouble, but recently I get 10-second latency whenever I'm logged in for more than a couple minutes. I can chat fine, without any lag. If I try to move, however, there's a 10-second delay between keypress and movement. I get very large ping times. It doesn't seem to matter which viewer I use, though the official SL viewer sometimes performs a little better than Firestorm or Phoenix. My router seems okay. I'll contact my ISP, but the main trouble I'm having is with SL, not with other web services. I'm using Windows 7 64-bit, 12G RAM, GTX580 videocard. Videocard lag isn't the issue. It's an internet-connection issue. Any suggestions on what I might try to address this?

Yes, my invisibility is "visible" to others as well. I haven't had the problem lately, but that's probably because I've been traveling and haven't been on much. I will try another viewer to see if it makes a difference.

Kenbro, thanks for the suggestion. I'll try to check on whether I have Magnum or whatnot. Thanks!

Thanks for your reply, Liisa. I had no idea people griefed that way. Unfortunately, I can't ban the person from the whole sim; it's mainland, and I only own one parcel of the sim. Also, how do I tell if someone is wearing stolen items?

Yes, that sounds like it. It sounds like UI noises strung together, as if I were repeatedly walking into a wall or something, but at a machine-gun clip. And yes, it seems to correspond to one of the sim performance meters in the "statistics" display. Should I ask LL to reset the sim or something?

Hi all, For the past couple weeks, my shop (Rickymations) in Hecta has been very noisy. In particular, when I right-click on things, or start an IM, or open a notecard, or edit an object, I hear repeated ping-pings, as if the UI noises are playing over and over again. I get this mostly in my shop, but I notice it on other parcels in the sim too. It's not just me; a friend hears the same thing. On the other hand, in some spots on the sim (like a nearby club) I don't hear this. And customers at my shop mostly say they don't hear it. Any suggestions on what it might be?

Thanks to both of you, again! I'll try both those things.

Thanks for all your replies. Dres: Where is this Phoenix support group? Is it a group I join within SL itself? I don't see a forum for Phoenix here on the SL website. Claireschen: Hmm, I haven't been clicking that tab on my Phoenix preferences. Will clicking it help make me visible again?

I sometimes become wholly or partly invisible in SL while changing clothes, even if I'm not wearing any alphas. I'm using the latest Phoenix client. I have worn items with alphas in the past, most recently a SLink prim foot. But these days, even if I wear no alphas at all, I'll sometimes turn partly or entirely invisible while changing. (If I wear the prim foot, I don't wear its alpha.) This happens even after clearing my caches. When I go to Appearance mode, I see no alphas worn under the alpha tab -- just the "Create New Alpha?" button. When I search inventory for "alpha", I find no alpha items "worn". Rebaking doesn't usually fix it. A relog usually does fix it. I've even experimented with RLV, to see whether it matters whether I change my clothes, or whether someone else does it for me. Sometimes the change goes fine; sometimes I end up invisible. I can't see any pattern to it. Sometimes, as now, I can't reproduce the problem. It only seems to happen when I'm not trying to reproduce it. :) The only oddity I see in my inventory is that I sometimes have two Phoenix "bridges" attached and can't un-attach them. Could this be it? Anyone have any suggestions on all this?

LL, please reconsider your reckless decision to allow children into an adult grid. Surely LL doesn't need money this badly. Please reconsider.

I like the idea of multiple increments of "busy." As is, I just never use busy mode; it doesn't warn anyone that I'm busy ahead of time, which means I still get distracting IMs. I enjoy talking to my friends. But I also want a Cone of Silence -- a working version of the flawed "friend-uncheck" system we have now. With the advent of Emerald, the "uncheck" option is untenable now; I have had to stop using it because people take offense at it. Also, I get IMs from groups and from strangers not on my friends list; usually I'm happy to get them, but sometimes I want to be left alone. Often I just want to work in peace, and I need my "main" to do so, not an alt. (It is my main who has the rights to edit my vendors, modify my wares, etc.) Optimally, the Cone of Silence would store IMs and items the same way that those things are stored when I'm offline, and send the IMer the standard note that the IM/item will be presented to me later. If I had my druthers, I'd also have the ability to carve out exceptions to my Cone of Silence, so that I could trade IMs with a couple people without being distracted by others. I haven't used Yahoo IM in years, but last I tried it, you could hide your online status from anyone you liked, and no one was the wiser. Isn't this a rather standard feature of social networking?