sl is rapidly becoming unplayable

Probably all the bandwidth is being eaten b kids on holidays playing WoW lately and for another month or so.

Perhaps this is an obvious suggestion but, given that the machine is a new build, have all the hardware drivers been properly updated?

After a more or less new build back in September with a clean installation of Windows XP, I was sorely disappointed to find I couldn't last one minute in-world without a crash. The issue was fixed when I updated the driver on the new motherboard, which was the one thing I had forgotten to do.

What the OP is experiencing is (mostly) not SL issues. Something is horribly wrong with the machine or the network. ("Mostly" because the slow rezzing and image loading is an ongoing battle of which LL is very much aware; given the nature of SL's streaming content, it's pushing the envelope to get even the performance we see.) Some specifics:

Yeah, don't do that. This only serves to slow everything down unless the cache is corrupted (textures are wrong or some in-world objects fail to appear altogether).
Are you trying to load inventory into a freshly cleared cache in a busy sim? Never try to do that in a busy sim: it's not only going to be slow, but you're apt to end up with cache that's already corrupted before you even get it completely loaded.
This is probably a local network problem (about which more below), but: what attachments are you wearing when you try to TP? Stuff with lots of prims and especially scripted prims (including HUDs) can make it simply impossible to TP regardless of sim or network. (Also, TPing in and out of very busy sims can be impossible; sometimes helps to start or end at a less-busy neighboring sim when possible.)
This is the main reason why I suspect it's the local network. Assuming this doesn't happen only when SL is being "difficult" for everyone (and assuming that the 40 minute time is really just login, not including the inventory reload following a cache clear), this is extraordinarily unusual on any machine, particularly one as capable as this. The thing is, not much else is really happening during this interval other than a bunch of network handshaking.

It's certainly possible that the ISP is doing traffic shaping--specifically reducing throughput to LL destinations, or based on deep packet inspection (I don't know if that's legal there).

In a subsequent post: "I ... even tried configuring the game outside the router." Hmmm... What's the topology of the LAN here? Evidently between the router and the ISP there's some sort of box; let's call it a "modem" (although god only knows what network functions it thinks it's supposed to perform). Anyway, have you tried power-cycling that "modem"?
Well... highish, yeah. Might be worth trying a straight ping from the command line to the sim's IP address to see if it's much better, and perhaps some traceroutes to see where this stuff is being routed and where there are delays in the route.
10 FPS may not be pleasant, but if that's recorded in a busy location (such as a music club with more than a handful of customers), it's not "a joke": it's as much as your graphics card can produce with the preferences as set. On the other hand, if that's what you see in an empty skybox, then there's a real graphics hardware or drivers problem.

(One other thing, and purely superstitious on my part, but: what are you using for DNS servers? I'm trying to get my head around that 40 minute relog time, which is the greatest outlier of the numbers cited.)

good news (so far), but first, the 40 mins to relog is not unique to me, many people I have spoken to have had this problem, but for now lets put that aside.

The new "fix" which I installed today seems to have resolved the majority of the issues, althought its lunch time GMT so not many US people online yet. I didnt change any of my settings, so I give credit to LL they were made aware of the issues and they seem to have been resolved.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, hopefully see you inworld

Are you trying to reconnect multiple times or is that for a single try? If the former, when you get a message to try again at such-and-such a time take it seriously ... if you try before that time it will not let you in and make you wait even longer before you can try again.

Actually, sometimes it won't let you in before the stated time, but usually it does. Whenever I see a time stated, I try again straight away and I almost always get in. The stated time is just an estimate to allow time for the server to fully log the person out.

i usually have to do that 5-6 times, Phil. but i always get back in before it says i should.

What was the fix? Can you supply details for anyone else who may be experiencing performance issues, so they might resolve theirs?

On another thought - I just wanted to add - although I'm in London and you are in Scotland - in winter my network provider is rubbish! I'm with Orange. It was so bad last year that it was like watching everything in slow motion, and crashing and Tp-ing was ridiculous. I was not on a windlight viewer, and had draw distances, and graphics down and everything. I feared it was the end for my av....however after a lot of investigating and complaining, and research, I found that Orange was a big problem for people using SL at various times, but mainly in winter or colder months. I was fine on every other programme I used, a little slow with youtube, but it was just horrendous with SL.

Orange, I must say were completely useless and unhelpful in their responses on my frequent calls, however, when it warmed up, and over these past few months, things have improved dramatically.

If things get worse for you again, do your research if others are on the same network and experiencing issues with SL.

My dear, you can have terrible tp problems if you have the wrong hairdo. Try changing your hairdressers . . .

Pep (I'm serious. If I wasn't being so serious I'd tell you about the firewall around Glasgow.)

I'd suggest sl might be made more enjoyable if large commercial developments such as malls were seperated from residential areas....

but then I'm biased because Ive seen lag overwhelm my region since a mall moved in next door....

Tell that to my home sim and my inventory then, which are loading three times as fast when I crank the speed up. (And yes, it was tested with the same viewer, several times, with a freshly wiped cache each time.)

Somehow you've created a hack that increases the volume by simply increasing the size of the pipe......pretty good trick. Let's say you have a garden hose connected to a faucet that delivers 2 gallons a minute (fixed rate due to water pressure at the water main by the water company). Your garden hose is 1/2" in diameter. Now you put a garden hose on the same faucet that is 1 1/2" in diameter...........and you now get your 2 gallon bucket filled in 20 seconds instead of 1 minute.

Like I said good trick........if it makes you feel better, go for it.

Not true. What will happen is that it will keep pushing back the stated time when you can log back in, but I always can spam log back in way before the stated time.

You keep on stating that the server has a max cap of 1500 per connection, I don't have the information or knowledge to disagree with you, but I am curious why you think this is so? Is there some stuff from the Labs that has said this?

You can hammer the log in servers and sometimes get in after the 2nd to 5th time. But, doing that often (not always) increases the time it will take for you to log in...........up to an hour or more. I usually will give it one shot at an immediate attempt to log back in. If that does not work, I'll wait a couple (maybe 3 minutes) and try again. That second try always works for me. I also did not hammer the server with repeated log in attempts.......which can delay others from logging in (people who are not having trouble with log ins). Hammering the log in servers does not increase your chance of getting in but does the opposite most of the time..........and it slows the whole system down for everyone else.

Let me go check the FAQ's and KB........it's in there somewhere. Something I read when I first got SL a long time ago about how to set your preferrences for optimum performance. I'll try to bring back a link for you.

Editing to add:

I searched the Knowledge Base (which has been merged into the Wiki) and could not find exactly what I read about 4 1/2 years ago......it's possible it's been removed or, more likely, moved somewhere obscure in the Wiki. I"ll quit referring to that max limit from now on simply because, since I cannot find the referrence, I could be wrong. But I doubt it very seriously. In order for LL to allow people with fast connections to set their bandwidth download to whatever they want LL would have to provide unlimited bandwidth........something that would be astronomically expensive. Bandwidth is expensive so setting limits is a reasonable thing to do. The closest referrence I could find relating to what I was reading back then is this:

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Help:Preferences

Now, I just came from in-world to do some comparisons using Emerald and the Official LL viewers. Both Emerald and the Official viewer showed an approximate average of about 600 kbps on the Statistics bar with the setting at 1500 kbps. Both had occassional spikes just over 1000 kbps (I think I saw a couple spikes at or near 1300). Then using the Emerald viewer, I set the bandwidth to 5000 (somewhat over that.....5050, I think) I saw the same results.........about 600 nothing above the about 1300 max I saw on the viewers set at 1500. I tp'd to a few sims that are normally well populated and have a better than normal amount of scripts running, heavy testure usage (places like Grendals Children). I have music streaming enabled. I opened the big map and zoomed in and out anything to cause the veiwer to require more data sent by the severs. I never saw any bandwidth above the 1300 on any viewer......not on the Emerald veiwer set at 5000 or both viewers set at 1500. Everything loaded just a quick (or slow) with either setting, either viewer.

I'll stand by my statement that you will never get more than a server will send. Setting your preferrences above that will gain you nothing. It probably won't hurt as long as your computer can handle to data coming at it that fast.........but if your computer gets swamped you are going to get problems most likely related to packet loss (and that will slow you down faster than a bandwidth setting too low).

Again, definitely not true on my account. Out of maybe 50 of these kind of login problems, it was only about two times that I had to wait until the announced time and I think once I was pushed back in time.

You're doing an awful lot of generalizations here.

Btw, seriously - "keeps other people from logging in"? With the concurrency numbers SL is able to handle by now? Hardly.

Phrased like that, it is certainly true. I keep objecting to the numbers you hardwired to that statement because currently there is nothing to support these. But you yourself say what you read was more than four years ago, and seriously, that is nothing like SL works today on so many levels.

Fact is, and this has been timed, actually, because a friend was running a comparison, that when using the standard LL viewer and Emerald set to the (standard) max level of 1,500 kbps, my inventory of (back then) about 23 k items took between 15 and 18 minutes to load completely. With Emerald cranked up to 8k kbps, it loads in 6 minutes max.

if you and everyone else hit the log in button repeatedly say with a sim is restarted or crashed (it happens, you know) the servers will slow down noticably (that's the log in servers I'm speaking of). Anyone else trying to log in will have issues along with you.......it can (and has) created log in issues that have required LL intervention to "resolve" in the past (though I admit it's not a common problem anymore but a couple years ago it was a huge problem).

You an do as you please when you get logged off.........I don't really care. But telling people to just keep logging in repeatedly to get in faster is not true..........and terrifically inconciderate of others. What's wrong to with waiting a few minutes? Second Life is not going to go to pieces without your presence.....that I can guarantee.

I'm trying to think of the last time I crashed. Hell, the closest I can estimate is about a month ago......but probably longer. I know I was ghosted for about 10 minutes a couple weeks ago but since I had no reason to log in I just let it go til I got logged off completely by the servers. Something's amiss if you are crashing so often that you need to hit the log in as often as you say you do to get in. You'd do better to find out why you have such problems.

My inventory at about 18k loads in seconds..........no matter what viewer set at no matter what bandwidth. The only time I have issues with my inventory is when it's a grid wide problem.

No, the client cannot get data faster than the servers can send it, however there appears to be no difinitive information as to what the limit on the servers may be.

I have gotten over 1500kbps for several seconds at a time (not an instantaneous peak) with the Linden viewer set to 1500K, and well over 2000kbps with the Emerald viewer with the bandwidth set to 5000K.

If the server bandwidth to a single client is supposed to be capped at 1500K, I'd say that code may not be working properly, or the client is reporting wildly inaccurate statistics.

Very likely to be the case. It matters not though. Anyone who sets their bandwidth above what their computer can handle will have problems. And that is what I was addressing when we got off on this derail.

Throttle down your bandwidth necessarily by setting it too low you will slow down. Open it up beyond what your computer can handle you will slow down. That's all I was attempting to say.

Learn to read properly and do not simply assume. An estimate of 50 logouts like that in almost three years of using SL is not "having problems". And that's counting the alts.

It depends on the speed of your connection to the Internet, and their connection to SF also. At work I have a 100 meg connection to the local POP, and they have a very wide pipe to the SF pop. I have seen the bandwidth meter go all the way to the 8000 peg when I open up Emerald to max.

At home, the most I can get is 3000.

I'm in the UK too....in the last week or so SL has become a nightmare. TP'ing in one go virtually never happens for me anymore.....and don't get me started on rezzing times of prim textures in nearby locality.


LL's new motto : "Pay the same.....get less!"


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