Lossy Network Connection?

Okay, this sounds interesting. Having recently switched from a USB, to an Ethernet modem to connect to SL, and having achieved much, much, better texture downloads as a result, I'm starting to feel that the quality of the Network connection is crucial to getting a decent SL experience.

Small Network buffers... I'll take your word that (I don't have a Mac), but what is a 'Lossy Network Connection'? Is that like a jpeg is a lossy graphic format - so any connection that uses compression algorithms? Or do you mean any connection not in the Linden Lab office (I hope big time that QA isn't only done using machines directly connected to the office Network)? Or do you simply mean a Poor Quality Network Connection - ie. packet loss?

I certainly suffer from the Invisible Avatar On Login Syndrome. Does this imply that I have a line quality problem that maybe affecting other aspects of SL?

He probably meant UDP. SL uses the UDP network protocol to transfer most of its data. Unlike TCP, UDP doesn't guarantee delivery, so packets of data can get lost (SL then has to re-send missing data until it's delivered). The further you are from the grid in terms of network nodes, the more probable it is that a packet will get lost.

which is why a European mirror would be useful !

I've hoped that as well, but given the passage quoted above, it may not be so. If true, that would explain much, little of it good.

On a more pragmatic note, the Help->About window will likely give you the most accurate statistics regarding packet loss as seen by the SL client. There are other ways of testing for loss but most of them operate on levels lower than the client and so fail to accurately represent the client's view of the connection.

hehe... on the real-time SL indicator, I've seen my packet loss go up as high as 170%. I must be losing other people's packets as well as my own.

It's in my mind that SL gives you window's-of-opportunity. Miss them and it doesn't give you a second chance. Miss the texture and it doesn't come around a second time without tp'ing or relogging. There are many reported differences in SL Experience that don't seem to be explained by system specs.

I was really just trying to warm the subject up. Knowing I've got packet loss, and doing something about it, are two different things. Any hints. or practical resources (I stress the word practical), on optimizing against packet loss would be grand.

'Lossy Network Connection' doesn't Google very well.

And a British... heh, or European, if we must... mirror sounds like a good idea too.

Basically, SL is implementing TCP bit by bit on top of UDP and doing a bad job of it.

They should just give it a break and use TCP for batch transfers.

No He meant USB, which is just a serial connection that you can connect basically anything to it, including network connections like internet access. Most Cable/DSL modems have USB port on them. The problem is if he has old v1.1 USB on his computer, it's incredibly slow (1.5mbit) considering most broadband providers are offering speeds much faster than this (2-3 times faster).

It's not like he made the switch from TCP to UDP, otherwise Second Life (and everything else on the net) just wouldn't work, regardless of what physical connection he's using to get onto the network.

By 'he', I assumed Candide meant James Linden. And no, my (Pale Spectre's ) USB ports are just fine - my Ethenet linked modem goes no faster than the USB modem did before. I believe it's about Line Quality. The Ethernet port is simply better at the single thing it's designed to handle - network traffic.

Whether LL have any control over line quality, I have no idea, but Candide seems to be suggesting that they (LL) should have gone with TCP rather than UDP.