1.7 Issue - Network Clogging

I'm having this happen less lately as well, but it still does from time to time. The world map still does it to me most reliably, so I hardly ever open it anymore.

I don't know if the belkin router uses a Linksys card or not.

...you know, since this 'network clogging' bug doesn't actually crash the client, but rather forces the client to believe the network connection was terminated remotely, the crash reporter isn't doing us any good in bringing this issue to linden labs' attention...

...we may need to resort to manually filing a unified front of bug reports in order to ensure that it gets addressed - let's see how things change under 1.7.2, but for now i'm still suffering the occasional terminate-and-reset routine...

When I first got to SL, I was having similar problems to those mentioned by a few people in this post.

If I brought up the 'Find' dialog or used the world map, bandwidth utilization would soar and I eventually would go linkdead and get a case of 'pink minimap'. This was on a 3Mbps cable connection using a consumer-grade DLink router. The only way to bring the Internet back to all of my systems attached to the router was to do a hard reset.

I traced this issue down to the UDP packet flood that occurs when the SL client is accepting large amounts of information. Either the DLink router was seeing this packet flood as a denial of service attack, or it simply overwhelmed it (most probable answer).

Back in July I switched routers and haven't had an issue since. I have also seen this issue affect DSL router/'modems'.

Hope this helps.

...wow numa, that's the most informative response i've seen in this thread so far, sincerely, thanks...for a lot of us i know this problem didn't show up until 1.7, though - do you think a similar cause is still likely?..

...and i have no idea how to go about replacing my DSL modem, since for all i know it uses some manner of proprietary SBC protocol unavailable on the open consumer market... :/

Hi Myyrh,

Thanks, I am happy to have (possibly) given some insight to this issue. Since I experienced the same thing at one time, I know how frustrating it can be.

Yes, I do think that the 1.7 series of releases have pushed what were formerly marginal network setups into those that are getting flooded offline. I haven't captured any 1.7 packets, but the inworld tools have told me that there is some funky stuff going on with bandwidth. This is just speculation off the top of my head, but if I were a betting man I'd put my money on it.

It's entirely unlikely you will get your ISP to change out your DSL modem if it is functioning. Granted, it never hurts to ask, but because of design flaws or whatever that may just place you in the same spot you're in now.

Perhaps you can contact your ISP's tech support and find out if there is a firmware update available. Alternatively, you may be able to update the firmware yourself. These things get changed often sometimes, and many units remain unpatched in the field.

One inworld workaround may be to bring up the world map (if that is what's causing you to go linkdead) and unchecking the map markers. You will have to relog, but when you do and pull up the map next time you won't be asking for more data than your modem can handle (hopefully). If disabling all of the checkboxes allows you to stay online, then you can start adding them back until you start getting kicked off again. This may or may not work, but is worth a try.

Also, have you tried adjusting your 'Maximum Bandwidth' slider under 'Preferences > Network'? It's possible that you're asking the SL servers to send you more UDP information than the modem can handle at once.

Play around with this stuff and see what works for you. Also, don't forget that there is an update coming down the pipe that will (hopefully) fix a lot of issues, perhaps even this one.

Good luck!

Wow, lotsa great technical advice here.

Upon reading more...

I once had a similar problem in an early Preview build: I'd open the Map screen, and a few moments later, I'd get disconnected. Playing with the PROXY settings (checking-unchecking different things) in the NETWORK PREFERENCES seemed to make things better, but I'd still get disconnected. It was frustrating, bizarre, and I sent in a bug report.

Fascinatingly enough, by the next version of Preview, I wouldn't get disconnected anymore. I dunno what changed but—something worked.

I would recommend giving Preview 1.7 a spin but it doesn't appear to be up right now.

Hi Torley,

This early Preview build you mentioned where you saw this issue - was that for 1.7?

I have a feeling I know what's going on, and I would be interested to see this get fixed as it's obviously causing people issues.

Yes, it was a Preview 1.7 release... I forget the exact build # tho... unomomento... lemme dig... V1.7.0.32!

Ok, so now I guess it's not just me getting disconnected & my router getting all goofy on me.
I am going to try opening SL but not logging in & then opening & running something else, see what happens.

I connected my cable modem straight to the PC and it still disconnects, but at then re-establishes, where as before I had to shut down SL & power cycle the router & modem to get the connection back. Also I end up frozen in one spot where I'm at in SL but regain movement if I teleport somewhere else.

My other idea is to un-install SL, remove all traces of it- registry, etc, then re-install & see if that would help.