SL over wireless

hey,

okay here's a weird one for you techies

I installed SL earlier today and opened up the relevant ports on the router etc. I can connect to and join the game, enter the newbie island and interact with the game for anywhere up to 2 minutes. That is I can send/receive instant messages, see other people walking around, edit my character etc.. After this my wireless connection drops out and thus I don't have a connection to the SL grid anymore.

The wireless connection never drops out when I am browsing or using it to access the local network, I'm wondering why it does when I try to run SL online...

anyone have any suggestions?

Zy.

Okay. Here's my probable answer, and some deeper questions.

1. Accessing SL is to Browsing is like how niagra falls is to a dripping water faucet. It uses WAY MORE BANDWIDTH FOR LONGER than your browser ever will (unless you're PC is hosed by Evilware, but that's another show).

Something on the wireless connection probably doesn't like having to stream that much UDP (instead of TCP/IP) for longer than a few minutes and simply disables the connection.
After that i'm spent on advice except the part where I say "Hard-Wire The Damn Thing!" like everyone else will.

Questions:
- Does your hard-wired machine have the same problem?
- What kind of connection to the internet?
- What kind of lapton/pc do you have?

Just to give you a point of reference, I'm using wireless and I have very poor signal strength and I'm still connected to both the SL grid and the web via my browser and Instant messenger.

So I would think there's another cause.

Oh, using SL over WiFi is possible, but even when you don't have to worry about dropping your connection, it can be pretty crappy. One of the key reasons for this is that the 2.4Ghz band used by 802.11b and 802.11g wireless connections is completely unregulated. Anyone can use it, and that means you can get a lot of interference. Perhaps even more importantly, it's also the microwave band. Yes, like your microwave oven. Using WiFi next to a running microwave is virtually impossible. I've never seen one built to any kind of standard that doesn't let enough radiation out to kill your signal.

So, because it's in the microwave band, WiFi tends not to work well through trees, the rain, or any other large bodies of water. (Put a glass of water in your microwave. How long does it take to boil, compared to heating up some cold pizza?)

(This statement on the 2.4Ghz band applies for all but the most obessive and picky users, as they're the only ones that actually have 802.11a (5Ghz) equipment.)

Now, in terms of getting SL to work...

First, is this actually your access point you're connecting to? If so, have you tried plugging into your router directly? Does your connection work then?

If not, it looks like the problem is with your router. You should ensure you have all your correct ports open.

I should note though, that even if you do manage to get it to stop dropping your connection, you're almost certain to have a laggy and inconsistent experience in SL. That's just the way wireless is: great for web browsing, bad for SL.