Heeeelp meeee..mega mega mega lag

I can't take it any more. I have 2+mbit cable. That's fast! That's really fast. But, Second Life doesn't seem to think so. If i'm moving over terrain quickly on a bike/flying/or even walking too fast, it get..stuck. My fps is 40+, but I'm rooted to the spot because it's sucking up my bandwidth. It sucks up every last ounce of my 2mbit connection regardless of whether I have my second life bandwidth set to 100kbps or 500kbps. It's so bad that usually only logging out fixes it, and even then logging back in doesn't always. I have to "baby step" across the land and wait until all of my visible scenery has finished downloading before I can move forward, and even then I still get stuck.

Here's the basic setup of my system:

2ghz Amd Athlon XP
512mb of ram with a 128mb stick not in there
Geforce 4 mx440 64mb
WinXP
WAS using a cheap-o network everywhere router, but I tried updating the firmware to play SL and that completely hosed the router so now I'm directly connected.


heeelp meeee tell me whyyyyyyyy. I just paid my $10 basic account fee, but I'm wondering if I should have waited =( SL is really fun but I can't seem to play it unless I'm sitting in one place doing one thing =/

Try rolling down prefrences a little. It could be your preferances being too high rather than SL. Usually that's what does it. I'm playing on a 768kbpps (much much slower) and I can zoom across the world seamlessly.

Oh they're down..64m view distance, and everything that says "lower is faster" is low...I really don't get it, it doesn't seem like it should be happening.

Hmm, it shouldn't be.. I have only a little bit higher than that and my draw distance is at 300 something. I have almost no lag, so... I'd check drivers, then check for packet loss. My guess is packet loss, so try updating your router firmware.

I'm not even using a router now, trying to update firmware is what caused it. I wonder if it's my onboard ethernet maybe? All of my drivers are the latest, including that one...wonder if I have any PCI NICs floating around, I'm sure I have plenty

a couple questions..

1) i know you're connected directly now, but.. what router were you using?

2) have you tried re-booting (thus clearing it's cache) the modem?

Was using a Network Everywhere NR041..Linksys' el cheapo line. Never had any problems with it tho, except now that it's hosed. Rebooting the cable modem itself you say? Wouldn't think that would do anything but I guess I could try later... I don't know why this happens with SL, it's the only thing I have this kind of problem with. Everything else just crashes..which, I get with SL too heh

i ask because i have a Netgear router.. i tried updating the firmware today and it went all crazy.. i kept getting kicked off-line, so i reverted to my backup settings..

at that point i wasn't being kicked off like that anymore, but i was suffering nasty lag.. so i re-booted everything.. unplugged the router, then unplugged the modem, then shut-down the computer.. waited for a minute or two.. plugged in the modem, waited for lights to go through set-up, then solid.. plugged in the router, waited for it to set-up.. turned the computer back on..

lag gone, everything back to normal.. and much rejoicing was heard through-out the land!

in your case, do the same thing.. except forgo the router part if you stay directly connected.. you should see a vast improvement.

Ok, I just woke up, unplugged the cable modem for a while and plugged it back in, going to start SL now...drumroll please...

Well, it was a nice try =/ I open it up, and then crashed right off the bat, but this has nothing to do with lag...so I open it again, and right off the bat I go to fly away from the port area, I keep moving on my own accord, float clean through a mountain, then get bumped back a bit and get rooted to the spot.

There are a couple of status bars you can look at to help get a better idea of what is going on.

In the far upper right of the screen there are two small meters. The right one is how much you are downloading, the left one is your packet loss. If you hover your mouse over them you should get a tool tip with more exact numbers.

Another option is if you want more data than you will know what to do with you can press Alt - 1. This opens a bunch of stats on the right side of the screen (move your map off them). There are tabs for stuff about your client (Basic and Advanced) and the sim. A lot of the options expand if you click on them.

It really sounds like you are experiencing extreme packet loss for some reason. Some of those tools may help you confirm that.

Yup I always have the stats window open. Oddly enough, I never see packet loss go above 0.0% unless i've been rooted to the spot for a number of minutes. I set bandwidth to 500, and for the most part I'm ok..my problems seem to happen when crossing the border lines..sometimes it's only a 10 second root, but every now and then it's bad

ok.. i know it may not work at all, but the whole 're-booting the modem' thing.. here are the proper steps to take:

unplug the modem
shut down the computer
plug in the modem
wait for modem lights to 'go solid'
turn computer back on

..just unplugging the modem and replugging it back in won't do the job.. the above steps must be followed to the letter to work right..

hope this helps.. hope it gets better..

Cybin, it depends on the modem. With my old cable modem, it was simply a matter of reaching back with a pointy object, tapping the "reset" button, and waiting for the modem to resync.

Nope. Ah well, I guess I'll just have to try and confine myself to one sim..as soon as I cross the border, the lag hits and roots me to the spot