Highly erratic connections

Frequently now as of Sunday I have been getting nothing but problems with SL, I have not installed any new software, hardware, or changed any settings to see why these problems would suddenly start.

DNS could not resolve the host name has been a message I have seen far too often now, I click connect and the majority of the time I am met with this error, being unable to fully log into SL.

Then when I can finally log into SL on a lucky shot if I try connect to streaming music, or just open a web page like www.google.ca at the same time as being connected to SL, or even connect to a messenger they refuse to make the connection left hanging until I close SL and they instantly connect with no problem.

With SL logged out I could connect freely with any program, I could be running LOTRO with a winamp stream, connected to MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Google Talk and Skype at the same time.

I’ve fully uninstalled SL twice now, tried to reinstall it afterwards and the same persistent problems still continue.

Anyone find this familiar?

I'm not sure I've had anything like this, but are you on a home network or running directly through the modem? If you are on either or both, reboot them. Might help. Might be a connection eating the bandwidth and since SL is a bandwidth intensive beast, well, you get the picture.

Also, I notice my connection gets laggy and crappy if I've had any recent power outages or something mucks with the electricity in my area.

Checked for spyware/malware etc.?

I have the exact same connection loss problems and am completely clueless as why it does that... Sometimes, when SL gets pretty laggy, it freezes completely (no message whatsoever, I'm stuck into the animation I was playing, wondering whether I'm still there or not, well everyone knows the feeling). But actually my whole internet connection is down. When I quit SL, it's a matter of seconds before my connection is up again.

What I've noticed so far :

- When I log before being redmapped, it helps recovering my connection faster, but then SL has not timeouted yet so the "region is logging me out" as I try to log back in
- I'm using a shareware firewall (Look'n'Stop), it does not do that with ZoneAlarm but then I can't log in Yahoo or Google when I use the latter. And when I'm dumped from SL, sometimes the connection keeps up sometimes it dies completely and I must reboot
- I'm using MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger, but Yahoo is not in cause, the problem was occuring before I installed that software.
- The very first days I used the SL viewer, my whole connection was killed everytime I tried to log in : the system was seeing a new "network interface" which replaced my other IPs... very weird
- I'm using a router-modem for my 3 computers, a Bewan. When the connection is down, all the network is cut from the outside world so it could very well be the router itself. I'll try to reboot it from time to time, as Raudf said SL is a bandwidth intensive beast and could make it go west after a while... If I can I will also update its firmware
- I'm checking regularly for spywares and I know my nominal processes list by heart... anything suspiscious goes, as well as its registry entry. So far so good

Hope this helps, and hope someone will spot a known conflict between SL and another of these softwares or hardwares so that pain stops

Cheers

To get ZoneAlarm to work with any programme, you have to allow it.. sometimes the automatic doesn't work, so check that it is in your list and that it is allowed to use programmes from your PC. The reason you have to do this is because a Trojan works much the same way, by using resources and other programmes on your system as well, so ZoneAlarm errs on the side or caution. If you have a router and use NAT and Mac address's, why then use another firewall? ZoneAlarm Pro is by far the better of the ZoneAlarm offerings, although using the windows version and Defender, together with your Harware firewall functions should offer a better solution.
One of the problems I suffered late last year, was connection being dropped when playing SL, it turned out to be the router itself becoming overheated, partly due to be sited on top of the PC and sharing heat. SL is very system hungry and makes everything work hard and therefore generate heat, a killer for electrical circuits.

The statement 'The very first days I used the SL viewer, my whole connection was killed everytime I tried to log in : the system was seeing a new "network interface" which replaced my other IPs... very weird' is potentially a hijack of your IP from your ISP. It sounds like you may have a trojan type problem. I don't know what virus checker you are using, but I would run a full scan and make sure windows XP is upto date. Perhaps even go to a reputable virus scanning website and give your system a 3rd party check as your virus checker may not either detect the problem, or be unable to remove the problem. While you are at it, use a port scanner to check which programmes are using your connection.

Actually I shut ZoneAlarm off at every session (its core process VsMon kicks in every time and I've not found its entry yet, so I run ZA and kill it right away, letting Look'n'Stop monitor the packets). Except for sites like Yahoo (Mail) and Google (which I suspect try to send/get informations on closed ports), ZA works well and is correctly configured to allow the programmes I know, and nothing more.

As for the total loss of connection I had on the first days, you may be right it might be a virus or something (but it was occuring only when launching SL, and only after a while). I don't remember doing a virus check at that time but it's possible. Anyway I don't trust antivirii too much, and I don't go on any untrusted website with that computer. The only time I downloaded a file from an untrusted source I had like 20 virii and trojans on my system. Virii checkers spotted 15 of them, I had to investigate and remove by hand the last 5 (nasty ones btw). Anyway it's over now. Oh, and I'm not using WinXP, I'm still on Win2k

Your "router overheating" problem is very interesting, I will definitely check that too. Still, my guess is that the router firmware doesn't keep up with the packet flow after a while, especially on laggy times, and drops everything until things calm down... I noticed that pinging a random website can help during those "connectionless" times, but not always. Maybe that ICMP packet helps sorting things out, or gives the router something else to chew on, thus delaying other packets in the queue... dunno that's only wild guesses here.

Thanks for your help !