Can a 1Mbps connection work?

I'm having serious issues with lag, but before I start trying to pin it down, I'd love to know: can a 1Mbps high-speed internet connection run SL, or is it just too darn slow? (I've run SL on an 8Mbps connection just fine.) If the connection is just too slow, then I guess I don't need to look elsewhere for answers to my lag problem.

Thanks much!

I have a 10mbps connection. Though while watching stats I notice SL never utilizes more then 1 to 1.3 mbps at any given time. With 32kbps as the average after everything has loaded.

You should be fine.

However that is only your download speed. Depending on your upload speed you may still experience lag.

Try a website like speedtest.net or something like it and post results here if you like.

I use to run SL on less than 1mb - I think it was 768. I've upgraded when my wife started SL to 1.5 and it works fine.

1 mbps should work. Just make sure your bandwidth in the viewer preferrences is not set more than that............you could run into packet loss if LL's servers send more than your pipe will be able to handle.

i run on a 786k connection with SL set to 400kb (that way im not hogging the entire connection we have 2 computers)

it takes a while to load ... more so than sl on a super fast connection, but it runs fine

Thanks for that suggestion, Dante. What a neat website! Ok, so here's what I found.

Last evening, I tested my speed from home (Maine) to Los Angeles several times:

The download speed varied between 567 kbps to 819 kbps.
The upload speed varied between 431 kbps to 457 kbps
The ping varied from 122 ms to 159 ms

I tried again this morning, several times, and the results were all similar to this one:
Download was 1092
Upload was 254
Ping was 130

So....the download seems good, while the upload seems pretty bad. Are these numbers good enough for SL?

If so, then my lag problem lies elsewhere. Here's my system:

Windows XP Home Edition 2002 Service Pack 2
Dell Dimension DV051
Intel Pentium 4 3.00 GHz
2.99 GHz, 1.00 GB of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
Intel 82915G/GV/910GL Express Chipset Family

The NVIDIA Card was just installed, because prior to that, SL said that the graphics capability wasn't up to snuff. When I look in the hardware device manager now, it shows BOTH the NVIDIA and the Intel Chipset as functioning. Is that correct? Should I disable the chipset?

Here's how bad my lag is. Every change: uploading each and every part of my avatar's body, each and every part of the scenery or items around me, or anything else for that matter, takes about ONE SECOND. And, if I push on an arrow key to move, it also takes about a second for the screen to register turning or movement - at which point, I've moved so far, I've likely run into something. It also takes about a second for the screen to register that I've stopped pushing a movement key. Other avatars often don't even show up completely to me: they're surrounded by grey boxes, most of their bodies are missing, and/or they don't show body movement when moving - their static, crappy images just stagger by in several choppy jumps. Oh, and forget trying to read detailed text or see detailed objects for sale - they simply remain blurry blobs. This happens every time I log in, every place I go.

Needless to say, it's impossible to use SL like this.

I tried using SL with just the chipset, before getting the NVIDIA card, and the performance was much the same. So, I'm wondering if the NVIDIA is actually doing its job? Like I said, the hardware manager indicates that both the NVIDIA and the chipset are active. When I join SL, I don't get the graphics warning anymore, so it seems that SL is registering that the graphics card is there. Plus, the card has a control system that I can access on my desktop, so my computer seems to acknowledge that it's there.

I've tried playing with the various settings that SL offers - playing with bandwith, environmental settings, and such, but there is no change - other than losing more, or fewer, packets. Packet loss, whether big or small, doesn't noticeably affect my outrageous lag, however.

Sooo....any suggestions on what I should try now?

Thanks much,
Abronia

Your graphics card may not be compatable with second life. It's an older model. And I can speak from not only SL's list of requirements but also personal experience with that card that it does not work so well.

If you are going to go with nvidia, I suggest at the minimum a Geforce 7800 or even a 8600.

Your integrated graphics can be disabled through your computers hardware manager, but if you are able to use SL now it should not be an issue. (If your card was not working correctly neither would SL, at all)

As for the lag, it could be becuase of your graphics card or perhaps you have some software installed that is getting in the way? A firewall, virus scanner etc. If you have any of those things try adding SL to there exception lists, or even just disable them completely for a short while as a test.

If your computer uses a wireless connection, try changing the channel your router broadcasts on. Or also as a test, try using a wired connection rather then wireless.

Just throwing out a list of possible ideas.

Edit: Your connection speed is fine btw.

the 5200 is compatible, but its ...

A) the slowest series of cards i think they ever made
B) the slowest model in the slowest series

its basicly a mx model with pixel shaders, and eventho BIG BOX stores sell them for over 120$ you can pick them up new off the internet all day long for 20-30 bucks

if your going to get one, go no lower than a X600 (ie 6600, 7600,8600 ect) and aim for GT or GTS models, and dont buy them at any store that makes their employees dress up in a polo shirt uniform, get it off the web, much cheaper

ie: my local BIG BOX sells the 5200 for 129.99 ... tiger direct will sell me a 8800GT for 139.99

Thanks for the information and ideas.

There's no firewall or virus checker problems, so it must be the card. I'm surprised SL would rate this one as compatible, because it clearly isn't. It's no better than the non-compatible chipset I was using at first.

I bought it from Dell, on their advice, after listing the requirements for the game. I wonder if I can get a refund....Hmmm...

So, I checked out the GeForce suggestions. Just to be sure, a GeForce 8600 GTS is compatible with my current computer configuration, and will be compatible with SL?

Thanks again all...

Thats a decent card.

However we can't tell you if it is compatable without seeing the inside of your computer. Do you have pci express slots? MOST LIKELY that card is a pci express card

They look like the two longest ones in this picture (color is irrelevant) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:PCIExpress.jpg

2nd and 4th one down from the top.

The GF 8600 GTS will work fine. I use the 8600 GT and with my machine it never has problems with SL. I would not reciommend the latest drivers for it though..............I had problems with the 175 series of drivers so I took a few steps back and went with the 169.25 driver.

looking at an E310 mainboard (which is what is in your DV051 as far as i can tell) it does not have much in slot options

PCI and PCI-E 1x, both are really slow... and almost not fiddling with (which is why they sold you the 5200)

you can do better, it will cost about 100$

course for another 100$ you can recycle parts out of your old pc and biuld a new one that would stomp this one into the ground

this card
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3805451&CatId=1603

is probally the biggest bang for the buck in pci, it sports a gpu nearly 2X as fast as a 5200, but again your bus will cause a bottle nect like it is with the 5200, and its ATI, which ive never had problems with but theres alot of horror stories around here about ATI cards and SL

heres the same thing except in a pci-e 1x slot, wich have 2x faster bus speeds than normal pci
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161197

Hmmm...I think I just have a "traditional 32-bit PCI slot", according to the Wikipedia image.

Does this mean that, no matter what I put in there, it will simply run too slow to be worthwhile for SL?

I'd like to stick with NVIDIA, if I can... will the 8600 work in a PCI slot?

no a pci-e card will not work in a pci slot

i think the pci ati card i mentioned before would be a decent boost over what you have now, not drastic tho

but

lets do a reality check real quick

new pci-e 1x video card for your current machine (if it has the tiny socket in the above picture) 99.99$

using your old tower, hard drive, optical drive, keyboard, mouse, and monitor with new guts 314$

with a 2.4 ghz dual core,2gb of memory and the 8600GT and a new power supply to run it

if that dell power supply is not a total pos - 60$
if you ebay your old guts as a complete package - 50$

now 204$ + shipping

pros)
you will have a system on the current standard issue stuff and upgradeable
you will have 2gb of ram 6-8x faster than you have now
you will have a good performer video card, more than capable of most anything currently on the market

you will have a machine much faster than you have now for small cost and some effort

cons)
you will need a real version of your OS (windows xp) depending if dell gave you a real xp disk or just some crappy resource disk this may add into cost

you need to make sure your case is a standard atx case, if its a pizzabox, micro or anything else your out of luck, so happens inexpensive but good boards are mini atx same as the pictures i saw

you will need to know how to use a screw driver and plug things into sockets that will only plug in one way

food for thought

Okay,

So, with just a PCI slot, what would work.....if anything?

Osgeld had some nice suggestions 3 or so posts ago.

those were ATI cards

they are supported

and again ive never had ANY issue with ati graphics, and have owned them off and on since before SL, yes i prefer nvidia, yes i think ATI cards are weird but i cant bash them cause again ive never had any issues

in fact ive got a pci radeon 9600 (still faster than your 5200) on a 1ghz pentium 3, with 512mb of ram still doing decent enough on SL to biuld in a non populated area @ 5-10 fps (yay freebee pizzabox compaq, http://irshell.org/forum/attachment.php?aid=227)

id check to see if you have the pci-e slot, i got my photos from dell's forum so if i were a betting man id place my money on it, look inside your pc (they wont bite) see if you have a screwy looking slot abit more than an inch long near the cpu (the cpu is under the large chunk of aluminum)

2x the speed, and 2x the bus bandwidth you will be able to run SL at a reasonable rate

if you have to use normal pci (gosh i had 486's in the early mid 90's that had faster slots than pci, vlb if anyone was wondering, stupid intel)...

either way you have to decide

is my current setup enough to play sl?

am i wanting to take the supposed risk of ATI graphics?

and is 80$-100$ really worth a better, but still slow SL experiance when in reality i could have a machine much faster for 120$ + effort + shipping more? (that is if you have a real copy of windows and a power supply thats really worth its rating)

if you were wondering the only step up in nvidia is a 5500, 25 mhz more you would not notice a bit of difference

Going back over the OP of 1mbps connection. SL in general can address upto 1.5mbps. On top of that if you use voice and or watch movies, this will be in addition to the SL usage.

Generally speaking:
VIOP requires a solid 2mbps connection to be effective.
Movies can use around 500kbps to whatever your connection can provide. The lower your connection available, against the data rate stream, will result in a bigger delay as the buffer fills, and repeated start/stop/restarts of the stream.

Not everything in life is equal. Some programmes report in Mega BITS per second, others in Mega BYTES per second. A Byte is 1024 Bits.

Throw into the mix that the vast majority of ISP's sell you 1, 2 8 +++ mbps connections, they are only a maximum potential and do not take into account Contention Ratios, which I have posted on these forums over and over. The ever growing race to provide greater connection speeds, is done when using asdl, by interleaving (layering) lower connection speeds over nodes.

*sigh* no real copy of windows, unfortunately.

Well, I may just be SOL regarding SL until I'm back in my own place, with my own computer, a YEAR from now (!)

...unless I can convince my folks to ditch this old one, and get a new one

Thanks for all the help, folks! It was very much appreciated, and I learned a lot...

A byte is 8 bits. 1024 bits might be called a big gulp.

So a Mega Byte is 8 million bits?

I have heard of 8 bit registeries, but not since DOS.

I run SL on another PC with the FX5200 its going to be laggy with that card (.) but will work.

Well, maybe that means my situation is not entirely the card's fault. Do you have lag as bad as what I described earlier? If not, then I have more going on than just the card....