Home security without the grief

Darn it - there I go again jumping in and not RTFM...

If I were looking for an answer 'Residents Answers' is where I would look. I was giving my answer, for what it is worth, to a recurring question.

If it belongs elsewhere - please feel free to move or remove it.

Rime

'Security Orb' - seemingly reviled by all because of poor abilities, configuration mistakes or deliberate griefing.

The problem: "I want to stop people from wandering into my home but I don't want to overly restrict their ability to cross my land on foot or in some kind of flying machine."

The solutions:

1 - Uncheck "Allow public access" on the "Access" tab of the "About Land" dialog.

For: Free, simple
Against: Anti-social, ugly
Result: Hideous ban lines, which *you* can't see, that reach up to over 100 m and are invisible to others until they walk, run or fly into them. Your neighbours will hate you and likely ban you from their land in retaliation.


Most estates...atleast the ones ive rented on... you cannot turn off public access you are required to keep it checked

I hide behind my couch with a scripted baseball bat, waiting to pounce on unsuspecting trespassers.

I hide behind my couch with a scripted baseball bat, waiting to pounce on unsuspecting trespassers.

So many unsuspecting noobs think that heart means "free sex"

and nobody is going to steal your prim bloomers anyway.

Welll..... Are they silk? What kind of patten? Oh, and what color are they?

Welll..... Are they silk? What kind of patten? Oh, and what color are they?

Copybot Security Without The Grief

2 - Cheap copybot preventer, shouts "!quit" repeatedly.

3 - Expensive copybot preventer, shouts "!quit" but also changes its name so that annoyed passers-by have trouble muting it.

or buy a dog in world

'Security Orb' - seemingly reviled by all because of poor abilities, configuration mistakes or deliberate griefing.

The problem: "I want to stop people from wandering into my home but I don't want to overly restrict their ability to cross my land on foot or in some kind of flying machine."

The solutions:

1 - Uncheck "Allow public access" on the "Access" tab of the "About Land" dialog.

For: Free, simple
Against: Anti-social, ugly
Result: Hideous ban lines, which *you* can't see, that reach up to over 100 m and are invisible to others until they walk, run or fly into them. Your neighbours will hate you and likely ban you from their land in retaliation.


2 - Cheap Security Orb

For: Almost free
Against: May be difficult to configure. Employs a simple sphere of influence centered on the device which might not respect your property boundary.
Result: Unless configured with care may harass your neighbours earning you an Abuse report. You may have aircraft fall on your house from unseated fliers.


3 - Less Inexpensive Security Orb

For: Still relatively cheap, may respect property boundary
Against: May just be a cheap security orb with prettier packaging and a more expensive price tag. Sphere of influence centered on device. Sphere of influence still extends outside of your home possibly affecting fliers or wanderers.
Result: Less likely to get you an AR but won't make any friends with fliers.


4 - Modern Security Device

For: Ability to configure a bounding box of influence rather than a sphere. The bounding box is independent of device location. Influences ONLY the area you designate which can be wholly contained within the walls of your home.
Against: Can be expensive (but do the math for real world cost) requires a little more thought to configure.
Result: As good as it gets privacy in your own home without affecting the freedom of others to enjoy your wonderful gardens or float over your beautiful home in their balloon.


Things to remember:

None of these solutions will prevent someone from spying on your activities through extended cam navigation.

Land access restrictions offer NO protection for your skyhome. Don't inflict hideous ban lines on your ground based neighbours while you live unprotected up in the sky.

First line of defense against troublemakers are land controls: Uncheck Edit terrain, Create Object and Object Entry for all residents; Check Safe (no damage) and No pushing options all found on the Options tab of the About land dialog.

Get a friend, or use an Alt (alternate) account, to test the effects of your security measures. Don't do unto others what you not have done to you.


In conclusion:

Though all of the solutions are legitimate (when properly used) only the more modern security devices give the ability to restrict to a specific zone. When configured to protect an area wholly contained within a structure they will never affect another residents ability to enjoy the freedoms afforded by Second Life.


In my experience:

Yes - I have inflicted each of these options on other residents - though option 4 has only caught out people who had no right being where they were.

Please - skip the learning curve and go directly to option 4. You will get what you want and everyone, except the ne'er do wells, will be happy.

Thank you,
Rime

!quit !quit !quit

Solution 5: stop caring about the 'security' of your place. It's not likely that anybody can actually take or damage any of your stuff so, really, why bother? Enable a 10 minute autoreturn and just eject/ban anybody that won't leave peacefully when you're home.

The amount of attention griefers will give you is inversely proportional to the amount of work you spend trying to keep them out.

That said, I like the sharks idea, too.