Last ditch attempt - SL + voice programs = kill connection

I have the weirdest problem. I will try to keep it short but it's truly a confusing one.

I have been in SL since 06, the only thing until recently that is different during that time is that I went through two computers. So - same ISP, same router setup, same wired setup, same sharing of connection with two other people/computers in the household, etc. Nothing changed.

A few months back I started having what I can only describe as weird "bogging down" issues. Eventually I linked the problems in-world to having SL voice enabled - if I disabled voice things would return to running smoothly for the most part. I also noticed that web functions were going wonky after awhile too, webpages wouldn't load properly, images were distorted, etc - I later found out this was due to my ISP throttling the connection, I guess that's some new procedure they've taken up? Anyway, I was annoyed by that and I guess it was because SL was eating up too much bandwidth or something - so I paid for my own phoneline and a totally new and different ISP connection, one that I do not share with ANYONE.

I assumed things would go back to happy-time like they were before, and all operations would be normal. I was wrong. While my web surfing experience went back to normal after switching ISPs, I still to this day have voice + SL issues - and not just SL voice, but ANY voice program and SL results in a total choking of my connection. The part that is really annoying and confusing for me is that it's not consistent - some days I can enable voice for a few hours and be fine, other days the minute I enable it I start noticing severe lag in SL and unable to do anything. Some days I can be on skype and in SL and surfing the web all at once, other days I can't even think of turning skype on while I'm logged into SL. I can do pretty much *anything* else + SL, except for voice functions of any sort.

I recently purchased a brand new computer- so throw that on top of the mix of confusion as I'm still having the same issue. New connection. New setup. New computer - same old problem. It doesn't seem to matter what I do, the problem just won't go away. I've pretty much given up and try to get all of my SL stuff done before needing to get on skype and I've all but given up on SL voice, I keep it disabled 99% of the time - but it would be really nice to be able to use them together again.

The only thing I can figure is that my connection speed cannot support SL anymore - it's only a 1meg connection, I live in the middle of no where and I can't get a faster speed out here. The thing that makes me go "hmm" though, is that my old ISP wasn't even a full meg connection and it ran SL and anything I wanted it to for years without a hitch on a shared connection, and now this new connection by myself, which is faster and on a beast of a computer now, can't do it. What happened? What changed in SL to make this happen? I don't get it.

I hope someone out there can help...I'm guessing the solution is to move to where a better connection is tho, even if none of the puzzle pieces fit exactly. But yeah, that's not happening any time soon. :/ Thanks in advance!

Sorry to hear that. I've given up on SL Voice too. It won't stay connected thru my router tho I opened all the ports, etc.

I can't give you any kind of technical help. But for the last 3 weeks - I've been having off and on problems with Voice in SL and Skype. Some days, everything runs fine, but when I try to use the voice features, all hell breaks loose, and even the Internet connection won't work. It's like the voice aspect sets it all off. I can have the Internet on for 12 hours working fine - then plug in for voice, and it throws off the Internet connection.

Exact same thing as this:



And it's not consistent, like you said - some days it works fine.

I haven't changed anything on the computer - no new programs - no new gadgets. Do NOT MOVE! lol
I'm on wireless in the middle of the city - with an ordinarily great connection - never had a missed connection in years. Hope you get that worked out - it's aggravating.

One method used to troubleshoot technical problems is called fault isolation. Figuring out what component the problem lies in.

You could, for example, take your computer system to someone else's place and hook it up and see if it works there, and bring someone else's computer over to your place and hook it up and see what happens.


If you said what the ISP is one could search for problems specific to that ISP.

Did you reuse any of the old computer's parts?

System information might be useful. The normal stuff, like what processor, operating system, operating system upgrade level, 32 or 64 bits, video card, video card amount of ram, amount of system ram, etc. What version of SL (precise version, not the words "the latest" or any other descriptive phrase)?

What kind of modem and router?

Mickey you described it perfectly, I feel like we may be having the same issue! It's horribly annoying! I wouldn't care so much except that I actually enjoy being able to chat with friends while being in SL, and I also have a long-distance relationship that requires a lot of skype usage.

SuezanneC, that's a great idea, as soon as my cousin is back in town I will take my computer to his house on his 12meg connection surely I can figure out if it's isolated or not. lol. Currently I use Verizon DSL connection. I did not use a single part from my old computer, not even the monitor. It's all new. Let me see if I can get those specs together for you properly:

Vista 64 bit
9g RAM
2.66ghz i7 quad core processor
NVIDIA GeForce GTX260 896mb shared vid mem

I am not using the regular viewer anymore, but I have used it (1.23.4), the RC, and many various user-created clients too (rainbow, snowglobe, emerald) - I am currently using the Greenlife Emerald viewer (1.23.4). They all share this issue, I could say that MAYBE possibly Emerald is a bit less easy to upset with voice clients, but I might just be imagining that.

I am not using a router anymore, I did try a DLink and a Netgear router though, and they did not change anything. Currently I am directly connected via ethernet to my modem. It is just the standard Verizon DSL modem they send, I am not sure on the version type.

Hopefully these specs might help weed something out. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, thanks for the time to reply and help!