No more second life

Well, it looks like I am out. I don't know whats happened, but I am no longer able to log in to sl at all. In the log in process the progress bar gets about half way over and stops. It says "waiting for region handshake" - but for some reason the handshake never happens. SL servers are not receiving packets from my end.

I've been to sl tech support who tells me it is my isp, and that they need to open up 54 ports. I've been to my isp support who tells me that 54 ports is unreasonable and won't open them, and they also tell me that since i have been using sl for a few months without ever having seen this problem before, that it must be sl. SL must have something that has changed somehow on their end.

I've shut down windows firewall completely. I've uninstalled zone alarm. I've taken my router out of the picture by bypassing it. I ran the ethernet cable straight to the back of the pc. I've run a doss command to ping and talk to sl full time, which it does very well with very few request time outs.

Unless somewhere between my location and the sl servers there is a router down or a switchbox or some component - i am out of ideas. I even brought my boyfriend in on this whole thing and had him look over the situation - desperately clinging to whatever shard of hope i could. But - as anticipated, he looked at the pc and sl and the tech notes - rubbed the back of his neck and grunted out a
"ugh - i don't know" - God bless him for trying.

Anyhow, the only thing left to do that i can think of is to go out and buy a new network card for the pc, but i doubt the network card can be blamed because i can surf the web. I can go everywhere i want to go - except for logging into the interface.

But, if nothing changes for the better, it does look like i am done with second life. I basically wanted to post this here in case any of the wonderful friends who i have made in sl happen to see it and know what has happened to me. I also wanted to see if there were any last ditch suggestions from anybody here on the forums.

So sorry to hear it, Misti.

If you create a brand new alt, same problem?

And, have you tried it from some other person's computer, not in your home? SL is a pretty quick install/uninstall, I'm sure some friend would let you try it. Does that work fine?

I am really sorry about this.

Hi Misty !

That happened to me too a few weeks ago. Waited very long for "region handshake" - nothing helped - not clearing cache - not installing new - nothing...
I asked support for help and they suggested to try a different region to lock in. That helped in my case. Thank god - I was already crazy about not being able to lock in anymore. Hope in your case it will help too

Best wishes,
Ceejay

Maybe try an Open Source browser. Nicholaz's is trusted and used by many.

http://nicholaz-beresford.blogspot.com/

Use the Bleeding Edge one.

I ended up uninstalling Zone Alarm too; it seems to have gotten bloated with it newest version. The voice connects to Vivox..do you have it blocked somewhere?

Congrats for not throwing your computer out the window. Let us know how it goes.

Yes, i did try creating an alt avi awhile back. I tried to use him to get in and still the same thing.



Not yet. People around me in rl who I know, are using different internet service providers. I could try someone to see if a different isp can get into sl, but that won't help me out much here with my isp - if it is even the isp.


I've tried several regions and get the same thing with all of them. Yesterday, for whatever reason i did get into sl for around an hour. I thought the problem had just worked itself out. A friend tp'd me to somewhere - the tp didn't go through, I got booted offline and have not been able to log since. But this morning i tried logging into my last location, my home, and several other regions and can't get past the handshake thinggy.

If you have not done so yet, go to the folder where the cache is stored at. On XP it is C:\Documents and Settings\"User Name"\Application Data\SecondLife. Delete everything in this folder. Second Life will rebuild it again. This does not get rebuilt during a reinstall either. I have seen this solve a problem much like you are having.

can I have your stuff?

Misti, try Kenbro's suggestion and clear the SL data. Make it all initialise all over again.

Oh and don't talk to Ee; they're from Coventry and we never talk to them

LOL you know how much this poor person tried to solve its problem. If you seen this occure and its fixxed i doubt it will fix this problem

They are better off deleting the client the doing a disk check and desktop cleanup then reinstall the client.

If you got in for an hour, it isn't your ISP blocking ports. I very much doubt that it's your network card either - never heard of that being a problem with SL. I agree with what the others are suspecting, something in your local install or configuration might have gone south.

One thing to try: If you are using virus checking, disable or even uninstall it. It has been known to mess up SL's cache management. Particularly if you are using one of the heavier weight ones like McAfee or Norton - they update the software continuously in the background, and that might explain why this suddenly began happening. If that fixes the problem, then use one of the lighter weight ones (e.g. AVG) that seem to tolerate SL better.

If that doesn't work, I'd follow Usagi's suggestion and do a general housecleaning and reinstall.

Which would be: Follow Kenbro's suggestion. Actually, you can just delete that entire folder. Delete as much as you can out of your Temp (on a PC, C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Temp) directory. Uninstall SL. Delete your browser cookies and cache files. Empty your Recycle bin (on a PC). Then defragment the disk.

Shut down computer

Power off your router/DSL modem for 15 minutes.

Power on router/modem.

Reboot.

Reinstall SL.

Disable your virus/spyware checking.

Pray.

Login.

Uninstalling the client and reinstalling DOES NOT clear out the Second Life folder in application data. So uninstalling and reinstalling can leave the same problems if they exist in that folder. Only going there and manually deleting will empty that folder and force SL to renew the data stored there.

did you also read you need to defrag/clean disk? the system as well? well of course it leaves parts after you deinstall........ After years of deinstalling and reinstall not one have i had issues like the poster who started this thread. But the parts that are left behind should not be causing any conflect reguardless. If that was the case after all these years had same problem.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled so many times that i've lost count. I will do it once more though and I will delete that folder in the roaming folder that holds the cashe and the logs. I use avg antivirus program too. I can shut that down as well. I will also do all the pc clean up crap. /me looks for her dishwashing gloves and gets ready to roll up her sleeves.

As for giving my stuff to Ee - umm... no. But if you wanna take over my land payments to LL maybe we can work something out

I have had this problem when logging in from Iraq. If you are trying to log in from your last know position change it to home position. Try doing that it worked for my substandard ISP!

Thanks, but that was like the first thing i tried to do.

I just got done doing all of the things suggested in the past few posts. I deleted the sl folder that contains the logs and the cashe. I turned off virus program. I uninstalled sl once again - cleaned the history and cashe and ran defrag. Shut down the pc and restarted then reinstalled. And - same thing.

And, after much back and forth with sl support, i've heard their final word to me, which sounds like the shrugging of a shoulder to me, but this is what I am now told.



Nevermind the fact that I've been using sl on this wireless isp network for over a month.

So, with the isp saying it is sl.. and sl saying it is my isp, again, it looks like i am out.

This is probably going to sound really stupid and may not help at all... but a while ago for some reason I had huge trouble getting into SL.. some sounds similar to your problem.. and someone suggested on the off chance that I acquire a new DNS as such..and they sent me here:

http://www.opendns.com/

I have never had a problem since *touch wood*

This may not help at all... but if I was in your shoes I would try anything and everything, I bet you are so frustrated

Latest version of Zonealarm Pro works here wonderful with SL without any problem. So I think the problem is not in that direction. Running without Firewall is something I would not suggest to do.

Morwen.

Thanks Tiana, it is worth a try. I think my isp can change my dns too. I will give them a call once more and see if they can open all of my ports, give me a public ip number, and maybe also change the dns for me. Hackers will love my machine won't they?

Misti, just a thought:
Did Support mean the quantity of ports or rather port *number* 54?

They were speaking of the quantity of ports. A total of 54 of them in all, are required.

"Second Life needs to connect to ports 443/TCP, 12035/UDP, 12036/UDP, 12043/TCP, and 13000-13050/UDP"

My isp tells me they can open the ports for me, but not selectively. They would have to open all ports to the network and give me a public ip address. I am going to tell them to give it a try. If that doesn't work, i may have to change my service provider from the wireless radio transmitter type, to the dsl / cable type.

/me shrugs shoulders

If you are on Windows XP or Vista, open a command window, type in ipconfig /flushdns - that will clear the internal DNS cache, which will tend to fix simular problems.

Sounds like your ISP is actually NAT'ing you, which can be a large problem, esp if someone else is already using ports you need aggressively.

Have them move you to a true Internet (legal IP) set up, and you most likely will have no further problems.

and

I have never heard of these things. But, it sounds to me to be a reasonable statement. I will ask them about the true internet legal ip thinggy.

Don't laugh - I'm actually not doing too bad with all of this techy stuff - for a girl who knows very little about any of it

Hey! just 'cos I won't ask directions doesn't mean I'M not learning something here too ya know?