Major Packet Loss.

Since I logged on this morning (a few hours ago), I've been having *major* packet loss issues. And I'm completely clueless as to what is causing it.

Yesterday when Voice was implanted in the main viewer, I didn't download it/skipped the update (since I won't be using Voice anyway) and I was still as stable as I always am. No packet loss at all whatsoever, anywhere. Bandwidth use was as it always was.

Today I wake up, log onto Second Life and I'm attacked by sudden MAJOR packet loss. And I'm talking about packet loss ranging from 20% to 80% and if I'm lucky, 0,0% for 2 seconds before it launches back up to 50%. And occasionally I have a crash with some issues of logging back in after that;

"Your account won't be available until *time and date here*" is the most frequent one I get.

I've tried emptying my cache, both ingame and of my browsers. Tried changing my settings in preferences. I usually let SL use up the maximum bandwidth noted, which would be 1500. I've tried lowering it to 500, rebooted, no change, tried lower, no change, tried 1000, no change. I've lowered Draw Distance with no effect whatsoever. I've rebooted my router, also with no change. I'm beyond clueless as to what is causing it and it's affecting my gameplay big time.

Could it be that I haven't installed the optional Voice viewer? Is there anyone else who has similiar problems as me and who hasn't updated their viewer, either?

Edit: I've been talking to a friend who has updated to the Voice viewer and is having packet loss issues as well.
Also, I've been watching my bandwidth, often uses below 100, even lowering to 20 at times. While I have bandwidth in preferences up at 1500.

I think the "your account won't be available" thing is usually more server-side than client-side. I've gotten in the habit of relogging right away when I crash to get the "you're still logging out" message then *not* trying again for a minute. Works every time for me unless the sim is really hurting.

Have you tried going to different regions? Are things as bad elsewhere?

I had packet loss also - can't explain it. It seems better in soem regions BUT not much better.

I've tried other regions, packet loss still goes from 10/20% and then goes way up to 70/80% and keeps changing dramatically between the two. Regions don't really seem to make much of a difference.

Hmm... I havent seen this problem myself. I did the update and when you log in it gives you the option to disable the voice chat. I would suggest running the latest update.. no telling what variables can exist with the major patch they did. I actually like the new interface alot more.

My average packet loss has been 20% or over since voice blew a fuse on Saturday morning ... i checked with my isp, did some tests, problem is not there, even pinged linden game server, its ok - problem is somewhere in SL it seems ... for those of you who want to reply 'i've got no problem with it', please only do that if you're not in the USA, thanks.
BTW, I disabled voice, sounds, media, music, no improvement ......
I wait for over 10 mins to see anything at all, finally get to view and am lucky not to crash spontaneously at that point, av never loads shape or finishes downloading clothing. B4 that I had very few problems, rarely crashed, was using voice for a week with the first look viewer, and had downloaded and successfully used the latest viewer, including the use of voice ....

I had a similar problem, drove me crazy for days, but in the end it was caused by available internet bandwidth... when I finally reduced the SL bandwidth to a figure within what was available there was no more packet loss, and I found that because I had previously emptied my cache in an earlier futile attempt to correct the problem, I had actually made it worse, because that meant when I finally stopped losing packets, crashing etc, i had to wait for ages, with my now slowed but stable connection, while SL reloaded every texture ....

obviously this is only a temporary fix, resulting in a slow moving world, but it stopped the packet loss and allowed me to get a couple of essential things done without crashing or being stuck ...

I've tried lowering the SL bandwidth aswell, with still no positive result. I still get major packlet loss of sometimes up to 70/80%.

Cirga: I suppose I'll try the update and see if it gets anything better.

The loggin out delay is a indication that the packet loss is due to LL loggin servers. This is an old issue, whereby the only quick way round it was to ask a friend ingame to IM you a couple of times once you log out, to reset the servers.

Other packet loss experienced on some sims but not others, is a SIM server to network latency issue. Checking Time Dilation reading (Ctrl+Shift+1) will tell you the latency between your client and the Sim server... if this moves from 100%, thats another indication it's server side.

Adjusting the bandwidth in prefrences to anything above 500-900kbps can sometimes actually cause packet loss. This slider is only a throttling feature, the Client can override this, as and when, required. There are more detailed reports you can see (if you are a techie type), to see the effects on your client between the client and the system, Ctrl+Shift+ (I think its 3 or 4) will tell you of throttling, bad/corrupted or lost textures, outstanding downloads pending etc.

If you have a connection which is consistantly above 2mbps, then only adjust the bandwidth slider lower if you are experiencing packet loss, if less that 2mbps, set it to 2/3rds of your connection speed and let the client do the rest, only making small adjustments if packet loss becomes an issue over a long period.

This may not fix all issues, but every little helps.