help needed about being a cloud

hope its ok to ask this here, most times i log in im a cloud. It takes ages for it to clear ,sometimes 10-15minutes. This has only been happening the last 5 days or so...is there something im doing wrong?

Nothing you're doing wrong. I can suggest several possible solutions. 1. Try rebaking your textures first - that is achieved by keying Ctrl Alt R. It should take a minute or less to clear up, if it does clear up. 2. If you generally log in at the same place (i.e., sim), try logging in at some other sim. Sometimes sims get screwy and need to be restarted, and that can manifest itself in lots on ways, including this one. 3. You might also try to clear your cache. This is done in your Preferences on the Network tab -> Clear Network Cache. You'll have to relog for this to actually happen, once you click the button. 4. I have recently been clearing my cache manually, that is, by going to the actual Second Life folder on my HDD (when I'm NOT logged in) and deleting the cache files. They're nested several folder levels down, and I'm not at home, so maybe somebody else can give you the path. 5. Sometimes Editing Appearance will clear this up, too, but if you've had this problem several times, it probably won't fix it this time, but you could try. 6. It could be a bandwidth issue. On that same network tab, there's a slider for maximum bandwidth, and I keep my wide open at all times, except when I am streaming music/DJing. That might help, but only if you are getting sufficient bandwidth from your ISP/modem/router to start with. There are websites that can test your bandwidth real time, and you might want to hit one of those and see if there's a bottleneck there, too.

EDIT:

http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/
http://www.bandwidthplace.com/
http://www.dslreports.com/stest

oh thank you so much information ! I will try them all

The cloud is a default appearance that's used when SL hasn't downloaded your textures yet. As Naz said, it's generally a bandwidth or other communications issue.

Some other things you can try...

- take off clothes and attachments. Possibly one item is giving problems.
- reboot your cable or DSL modem and router.
- force the default avatar. To do this, hit CTRL+ALT+D to show the Advanced menu in the top bar. Then go to Advanced/Character/Character Tests/Test Male (or Test Female). This will give you a noob avatar. Then you can put on your normal shape, skin, and clothes again.

But without a cloud there is no Rain.

I have nothing to add to the suggestions, only an observation. I do find it a peculiarity of human (and canine) nature that we would probably all love being clouds if we didn't have to be one. The cloud really looks kind of cool.

i usually teleport to another region and back and it usually fixes it.at least for me anyway

It never hurts to reset your router at home, either. just un plug the power, wait about 30 seconds then plug it back in. Give it 2 minutes to come back up and see if thatworks better.

Good suggestions so far, but I have one to add:
For some bizarre reason, changing your grouptag seem to rezz you faster.
I dont know why, but it works.

Go looking for some daffodils.