This tab allows you to edit, delete or add grids that the viewer will recognize, and make available at the log in screen.

In order to be able to login to grid other than Second Life, you need to enable Preferences→ Advanced→ Allow login to other grids.

Secondly, you need the grid selector on the log in screen. If you do not see it, press Shift-Ctrl-G to activate it.

• Add new grid: Here you can type in the login URI of a grid you wish to add to the existing list. You should consult with the specs of the grid in question to obtain the correct URI to place here. Click on Apply to save the URI; click on Clear if you change your mind.
• Manage Grids: This shows the list of currently defined grids. Many are already present, by default.
  • Refresh: Reloads the default definitions.
  • Remove: Deletes the currently selected grid from the list.

The fields below this are auto-populated and cannot be edited:

• Grid name
• Grid URI
• Login page
• Helper URI
• Grid Website
• Grid Support
• Grid Registration
• Grid Password URI
• Grid Search
• Grid Message URI

• Enable region Lightshare settings: Use OSGrid Lightshare.
• Debug Search:
  • Override current search url: replace the default search URL (SecondLife) with a different one. The default will be used if this is left empty.

This tab allows you to backup and restore your Firestorm preferences in a safe way. This is useful in a number of situations. For example:

• The viewer is behaving in an unusual way and settings corruption is suspected. You can create a backup of your settings prior to wiping them to defaults, to see if default settings solves the problem. If it doesn't solve the problem, you can quickly revert to your old settings.
• You are upgrading to a new version of the viewer. Generally, this requires you clean install (which implies not only removing the old version before installing the new, but also wiping settings), since settings files tend not to be compatible between versions. You can use backup/restore to save having to manually reconfigure all setting after the upgrade.

NOTE: Not all settings are backed up. Some are not considered “safe” to restore, particularly during a viewer update.

• Backup Path: Select the folder where your backup settings will be written; click the Set button to select the folder.
  (Please do NOT store directly to your dekstop.)

Below are three groups of settings which may be saved/restored:

• Global files: Settings which affect all accounts;
• Per Account FIles: Settings whcih can be different for each account;
• Folders: This includes custom selection beams, windlight, and so on

To select all of the available settings for backup/restore, click the Select All button; Deselect All unchecks all of them, allowing manual selection of just some.

• Restore global settings: Check this if you wish the restore operation to restore the settings listed in the Global Files column.
• Restore per account settings: Check this if you want the restore function to restore settings listed in the Per account Files column.

• Backup Settings: Click this button to create a backup of your settings, to the folder specified at the top.
• Restore Settings: Click this to restore settings previously saved by a Backup.

For step by step instructions, please refer to this page; there is a video tutorial here.

• Allow Remote Scripted Viewer Controls (aka RLVa or RestrainedLove API): Enables RLVa (Requires restart).
  Documentation on RLV is available here and here.
• Always rez objects under the land group if possible: Many regions are set to only let objects be rezzed by group. When creating an object, the viewer will attempt to set the group of the object if the avatar is in the same group as set for the land.
• Create particle effects when scripts communicate: If this is enabled, when a script “chats”, the object containing the script will appear to generate swirling particles. Disable this option to turn that effect off.
• Deactivate tracking beacon when reaching the targetted avatar (⇐ 3m): Normally, a tracking becon (such as one set via map will vanish once get get within 3m of it; with this disabled, the beacon will remain visible until clicked.
• Disable Login Progress Screens: Disables the black login progress screen.
• Disable Logout Progress Screens: Disables the black logout progress screen.

• Enable progressive draw distance stepping: Enables PDD; the slider allows you to adjust the time in seconds between each draw distance increment.

• Enable LSL-Client Bridge:

  Enables the Firestorm bridge. See this page for more on what the bridge is and what it does.
• Flight Assist drop-down: The bridge can offer flight assist functionality, if this is enabled. Note that you should not wear any other scripted flight assist if you turn this on, as they will conflict. (Requires the bridge to be enabled.)
  Flight speed can be boosted; you can select by how much.
  Note that the SL flight height limit is now 5000m; below this, a flight assist is not required.

• Block left-click sitting on objects: Some objects are set such that a left click will result in sitting on them rather than touching; enable this if you want to avoid accidentally sitting on such objects. But note that this will prevent all left-click sitting; you will need to explicitly right click and select sit from the menu.
• Allow scripts to show map UI (llMapDestination): Certain teleport systems open the map for teleporting when clicked. Enable this if you wish to allow this feature.
  If you find the world map unexpectedly opening for you at some locations, and re-opening if you shut it, disable this setting temporarily, until you leave that location.

• Revoke Permissions: Removes an object's permission to animate or control your input. If this is not done, the object retains permission to animate your avatar indefinitely¹⁾:
  • Never (original behaviour): Objects will retain permission to always animate your avatar.
  • Revoke on SIT: Revokes permission when you sit on the object.
  • Revoke on STAND: Revokes permission when you stand up from sitting on the object.
  • Revoke on SIT and STAND: Revokes permission when you either sit or stand.
• Texture Lag Protection:
  • Automatically hide large objects with high texture area: Enabling this will cause objects with large texture area to not be rendered. This can be used to combat griefing done via specific objects.
  • Threshold: Sets the threshold area to use; prims over this value will not be rendered. This may cause some normal objects to not display either.
• Enable Spam Protection: These items allow you to protect yourself against various forms of spam, such as might be used in griefing attacks:
  • Max lines in a single message: this is the limit where the spam protection will start blocking messages from that source. ie. anything over this number of lines will be clocked.
  • Max events from same source: indicates the maximum number of events that can be recieved from a single source in 2 seconds before the source is blocked.
  • Sound play requests multiplier:
  • Sound preload requests multiplier:
  • Unblock all spam sources: will unblock anything that was blocked by the spam protection.
• Confirm before paying. Threshold: Shows a confirmation dialog before paying sums over this value. To always show a confirmation, set the value to 0 (zero).

• Amount that Avatar's head follows Mouse: Set both these sliders to zero if you do not want your avatar's head following the mouse cursor for unfocused mouse movement. They do not affect whether your head moves to look at something your camera is focused on.
  • Vertical range that avatar's head follows mouse: Controls how far or how little your head moves up and down to follow the movement of your mouse cursor.
  • Horizontal range that avatar's head follows mouse: Controls how far or how little your head moves left and right to follow the movement of your mouse cursor.
  • Disable random avatar eye movements: As the title suggests.

• Selection beam particle effects:
  • Beam updates/sec: Controls how many particles the stream uses
  • Scale: Width of beam particle effect
• Enable selection beam: Disable/enable the display of the particle beam
• Send selection data to chat: (Formerly called SL Particle Chat). If enabled, selection start/stop information, and global position of an object being selected (edited) are sent on chat channel 9000.

• LSL-Client Bridge external protocol integration:²⁾
  • Allow OpenCollar protocol to enable or disable the built in AO
  • Allow LockMeister protocol to enable or disable the built in AO

• Automatically change environment to use region/parcel settings: If enabled, your WL settings will change if you TP into a region that has windlight region-level windlight settings. This is the same as top menu bar→ World → Environment Editor → Environment Settings→ Always use parcel/region settings.
• Crossfade region environment sky presets changes made from quick prefs: Dynamically transitions sky settings.
• Crossfade region environment water presets changes made from quick prefs: Dynamically changes water settings.

• Use Firestorm Parcel Windlight sharing: Enables parcel level windlight sharing.
  • Auto apply WL settings from friend's land: If enabled the viewer will automatically see the windlight settings (no prompt) on a friends land if set.
  • Auto apply WL settings from my groups' land: If enabled the viewer will automatically see the windlight settings (no prompt) on group land if they are set.
  • Auto apply WL settings from any parcel: If enabled the viewer will automatically see the windlight settings (no prompt)on all parcels with it set by the owner.
  • Crossfade region environment changes for Parcel WL: Allows for dynamic changes between WL settings when a region with WL settings has parcels with their own, different, settings.
• Crossfading duration: You can indicate how long the above crossfade transition effect should last.
• Cloud Texture: You can select a different texture to be used to create Windlight clouds. Select from the drop down list. A relog is mostly likely required after changing.

Please refer to this page for more information on using Windlight with Firestorm.

NOTE: For a video tutorial on setting custom default prim parameters, see here.

Allows you to change parameters of your prim when it is first rezzed.

• x/y/z Size: Sets the size, in meters, of the prim.

Default settings to use for newly created objects.

• Phantom
• Physical
• Temporary
• Material: Lets you choose the default material

Set default texture parameters for newly created objects.

• Texture: Select the default texture to apply to newly created prims. Click to open the texture picker window.
• Color: Click to open the color picker window, to select a default color.
• Alpha: default transparency value.
• Glow: Default value for glow.
• Full Bright: whether full bright should be on by default or not.
• Shiny: A drop down from which you can select the default shiny value.

It is possible to automatically include an item into newly created prims.

• Embed an item into new prims: Enable this to embed items.
  Then drag the desired item (for example, a landmark) into the space marked Drop an inventory item here. Once dropped, the space below will show the name of the item.

Default Creation Permissions Opens a window which allows you to select permissions to be applied, by default, to newly created items of different types. (Same as top menu, Build → Options → Set Default Permissions.))

Allows you to change the pivot point of an object.

• Show axis arrow on root prim position: Moves the axis from the center of the object to the center of the root.
• Values are percent: When enabled the values are percentages.

• Name of the font used in the LSL script editor
• - Monospace
• - Scripting

• Size of the font used in the LSL script editor
• - Monospace
• - Scripting
• - Small
• - Medium
• - Large

• Enable LSL Preprocessor: Enables the functionality offered by the LSL Preprocessor. This has a few additional options, if enabled:
  • Script optimizer: Enables the script optimizer
  • Switch() statement: Enables Switch/case statements.
  • Lazy lists Enables Lazy lists.
  • #includes from local disk Allows the use of the #include directive.
  • Preprocessor include path

• Enable highlighting of selected prims: Shows the yellow highlight on prims you select. Deselecting this can increase viewer performance when several prims are selected.
• Highlight boundary of currently selected parcel: When editing an object, this will outline the containing parcel.
  • Show boundary up to maximum build height: When this is enabled, the highlight will be extended up to the max build height (currently 4096m).
• Limit Select distance: Enable this is you wish to limit the distance at which you may select (edit) objects. To the right, you can specify the maximum distance, if this option is enabled.
• Limit drag distance: If enabled, you won't be able to move objects over a distance greater than the limit set to the right. Disable to remove limits.
• Constrain rotations to multiples of: Manual rotations will always “snap” to this number of degrees - when “snap to grid” is disabled.
• Show unlink confirmation dialog if linkset has minimum: When unlinking a linkset, you will be asked for confirmation if there are this many, or more, linked items.
• Use old “Set Object For Sale” behavior: Uses the old style for setting objects for sale. The new behavior safeguards against an object being purchased for the default 10L$ while you are setting the correct price. You click “For sale”, specify the price, then click Apply.
• Save scripts edited from inventory as Mono: Allows you to set that scripts edited in inventory, will compile with Mono rather than LSL2.
• Save textures from inventory to disk as PNG instead of TGA by default: Changes the default image save format, to save you having to change it manually.
• Use Ctrl+mouse to grab and manipulate objects: If this is enabled, pressing Control while left clicking an object, will allow you to move it in-world.
• Allow click-drag or click-scale (together with caps lock) of a texture face in build mode: If this is enabled, you will be able to click and drag - or scale- textures on a prim face. To do this, you need to be in Edit mode on the prim, enable Select Texture then click the prim face that you wish to modify.
• Preview animations on own avatar during upload: If enabled, animations will be played in preview on your avatar when uploading them.

This tab shows default Inventory folders for various types of uploads. In order to change a default upload folder, right click the desired folder in your Inventory window, and select Use as default for, then pick the upload type.

Reset default folders button resets all upload folders to default destinations.

• Show Hover Tips: This allows you to set what hover tips, if any, you see. Disable this to disable all hover tips. Otherwise, enable it and then you can opt to indicate which hover tips you want to show:
  • on All Objects
  • on Land
    
    
  • Hovertip Trigger Delay: Allows you to choose how long your mouse has to hover over something before you get a hovertip. You can specify different delays for:
    • Tooltips
    • Avatars
    • Objects
      
      
  • Show extended information in hover tips: If this is enabled, hovertips will show details about the object your mouse is over, such as the owner, prim count, etc. Otherwise, hover tips will show just the object name.
  • Show avatar group titles in hovertips: If enabled, avatars' current group titles will display, along with the name, when your mouse over them.

• Floating text fade distance (in m): Sets the distance where floating text starts to fade.
• Floating text fade range (in m): Sets the range it takes for floating text to go from fully visible to fully invisible.

• UI Scaling (may cause side effects): Adjust the slider to choose the UI size. The maximum value depends on your OS: Eg, for Win10, it is 4.5, for earlier Windows, 2.5.
  NOTE that too high may mean you cannot see all of your UI. This may also “break” some UI elements.
  • Automatically detect UI scaling factor: (Windows only) Have FS determine the best possible value for your system.

• Script Dialogs per Object: Controls how many dialogs get opened:
  • One per object - means if a second one opens either the first or second will not appear.
  • One per Object & Channel - means you can have more than one per object but only if they use different channels to interact.
  • Unconstrained - means you can see as many menus/dialogs as may be generated.
    • Remove “Block” button: Popup windows that are generated by scripts have a “Block” button on them; this allows you to easily mute the object that sent the popup, in cases of popup spam griefing. If you find this confusing and think you might click it by mistake, then you can disable it here.
      Note: muting an object also mutes the object owner; do not block popups from vendors without very good reason, or you will not receive items you purchase from them.
      You can review your listed of blocked people and objects in the Block/Mute List.
• Script Dialogs Position: You can select where on the screen scripted popup windows should appear.
  • Animate Script Dialogs: Enable this to replicate old style (V1) behavior when opening script dialogs. Only works if they open at the top of the screen.

• Visible rows per script dialog: Maximum number of lines visible in a script dialog window.

• Use Pie Menu: Allows you to have pie menus (on by default). If disabled, this gives the V2-style vertical drop down instead. You can override the colors used by the pie menu in Preferences→ Colors -> Miscellaneous.
  • Enable text animation: If enabled, the text within the pie is also animated.
  • Enable outer ring shade: Adds shading to the outside of the ring, to further draw attention to the selected “slice”.
• Group Group Notices and chiclets in Top Right: Moves other dialogs (group notices, payments, etc.) to the topright corner (V1 style).
• Hide group and IM chat chiclets: If this is enabled, the chiclets representing open and new IM and group chat messages will be hidden, leaving on the general chat bubble; if this is clicked, you will get a list of open IMs/groups chats.
• Use legacy list layout for Notifications window: Enable this to use the old style notifications window.
• Remap shortcuts already used by Linux (Linux only;requires restart): Shortcuts already used by Linux (Ctrl-Alt-Fn) will be remapped to use Ctrl-Shift instead.
• Prevent statistics window from gaining focus

• Flashing IM tabs override: allows you to fine tune how long and fast the IM tabs flash:
  • Number of times IM tabs flash
  • IM tab flash rate (Hz)

• Show traffic indicator in upper right corner of the screen: Enable this if you want to display a small traffic meter in the upper right corner of the menu bar. This will show your current packet loss (left bar), and bandwidth usage (right bar).
  • Use legacy period mean per second display for lag meter: If enabled, Firestorm will use the legacy method of showing the period mean per second value in the meter instead of the current observed value.
  • Clicking on traffic indicator opens Statistics instead of the Lag meter: Opens Statistics instead of Lag meter.
• Show media controls in top menu: If you disable this, the media controls are removed from the upper right of the screen. You can still acess volume controls in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Sounds, if needed, or just re-enable this option.
• Show Location in top menu: Shows the current region and parcel names in the top menu bar.
  • Show simulator channel in top menu: Shows the region channel name in the status bar. Nothing is shown for Main Channel regions.
• Show Menu Search: Enable searching the top menu bar.
• Show Currency Balance: Display your L$ balance in the menu bar.
• Enable mouse rollover popup on status bar menu icons: If enabled, displays tooltips when you mouse over items in the top menu bar.

• Show Favorites Bar: Display the contents of your Favorites folder.
• Show Navigation and Search Bar: Add this bar to the top of the screen.
  • Show Search Bar: Allows the search portion of the navigation bar to be enabled/disabled

• Open avatar profile directly when clicking on its name: If enabled, when you click on someone's name in chat, it opens the profile immediately. With this disabled, you get a small summary window.
• Use web profiles by default: Displays user profiles as web profiles rather than in a profile window.
• Disable automatic opening of block list: Enable this option if you do not want the block (mute) list to open when you block a person or object.
• 'Friends' and 'Groups' in 'Comm' menu opens the V5 based windows: If enabled, Friends and Groups will open in the People panel; otherwise they will open in the Contacts panel.
• Use legacy object properties: If enabled, this will show the old style window when right clicking an item in Inventory and selecting Properties. If disabled, properties will be shown within the Inventory window instead.

• Use stand-alone windows:
  • Group profiles: If enabled, group profile windows will open in separate windows; if disabled, they will open in the same window, with the second opened replacing the first.
  • Teleport history: if enabled, teleport history will open in a window separate from the landmarks window.
  • Block/mute list: Keeps the list of blocked residents separate from the people panel.
  • Landmarks, place details and teleport history details: Similar to the above, but keeps each type of “location” window separate, rather than grouping onto a single window.

• Extend teleport history by: Enable these options to record additional information in your teleport history:
  • Position
  • Date

• Contact list options: Options concerning what is shown in your friends list, and how it is sorted.
  Note that some options have no effect if you have the corresponding option disabled in Prererences → General. For example, if you have disabled display names, then sorting your friends list by display name will have no effect, and therefore is best set to Username.
  • Visible name columns: Here you can select which name colums to shwo in your friends list: username, display name, or full name (see below).
  • Sort list by: What to use to sort your friends list, username or display name.
  • Show full name as: a full name can be shown as Username (Display name), or Display name (username).
  • Show permissions column: If enabled, this shows what permissions you have granted to each friends (eg, online status, edit rights, showing location on map, etc), and which they have granted to you.
  • Show search filter: adds a search box to the list window.

• Inventory Options:
  • Hide empty system folders from inventory: If enabled, the inventory window will not display any system folders (eg, Favorites, Landmarks, etc) that have nothing in them.
  • Show the Received Items folder in normal inventory: If enabled, this folder will be show in the normal inventory list of folders, rather than as a panel under the folder list.
    • Always show Received Items buttons at th bottom of inventory: Only available if the option above is enabled. When this is on, you will also have the button showing on the inventory window.
  • Allow separate search terms on each tab in inventory: If enabled, you can enter different words/phrases in the search bar of the Inventory window: each of Inventory, Recent and Worn can be searched independently.

• Notification Display Settings (Popups, console, toasts): This is where you can fine tune the way your “Toasts” look and act:
  • Space between lowest Toast and bottom (pixels)
  • Notification Toast life (seconds): How long group notices remain open.
  • Tip Toast life (seconds): applies to notificants such as after a TP, you see “Teleport completed from…”. Also includes the friend on/offline notification toasts.
  • Nearby Chat Toast life (seconds)
  • Nearby Chat Toast z-offset (pixels)
  • Nearby Chat Toast fade time (seconds)
  • Startup toast life (seconds)
  • Normal Toast fade time (seconds)
  • Gap between Toasts (pixels)
  • Height of Overflow Toast (pixels)
  • Width of Nearby Chat Toast (%)

• Show toasts in front of other windows: If enabled, toasts will always stay above (cover) any other open windows; otherwise, other widows will be allowed to cover, and potentially hide, toasts.
• Use new region restart notification: Enable this to use the new system for region restart notifications, which can include a distinctive sound and screen shake.
  The alert sound feature can be enabled/disabled in Preferences → Sound & Media -> UI Sounds 3.
  • Don't shake my screen when the region restart alert message is shown: Check this to disable the screen shake feature.

• Font Scheme: Allows you to choose one of the following fonts from the drop down menu.
  • Dyslexia:
    
  • Celestia medium redux:¹⁾
    
  • Droid:
    
  • Mobi:
    
  • Ubuntu:
    
  • Liberation:
    
  • Deja Vu:
    
  • Roboto:
    
  • Noto:
    
• Font Size Adjustment: Lets you change the size of the font. NOTE that this may cause issues.
• Chat Line spacing: spacing between lines of text.
• Folder Item Height: Height of items in inventory.

If you receive an item called “..ExDepart.. Gift Package 2012” from anyone, even close friends, do not rez it! There are now variants on this; one known one is called “-[L4L]- Gestures & Walkers (Freebies) <3”

This is a spoofing griefer item; it will rez items with your name as the owner (given that you are, in fact, the owner) to pass out more items. If you receive this item, make an abuse report with Governor Linden as the abuser, list any information you can think of to help, and remember the person that sent it to you probably didn't do it. Then delete this item.

If you do end up with one rezzed, you will need to find it and delete it. Typically, the item will spam you with more items and/or notecards, and they will be coming from an object owned by you, so muting it is not an option. When you are offered the item, the message box should also say where the item is located, as a clickable link. Failing that, decline it, and you should then get a location in local chat. Normally, the object will be at height, at or about 4000m.

Go into fly, then teleport to the location you got. This can be accomplished by typing the following into local chat:

gtp x y z

Replace x, y, z above with the coordinates of the object. Once there, enable beacons for scripted objects:

• top menu→ World → Show More → Beacons

Enable beacons, scripted objects. You should now see a very small box with crosshairs on the object that is spamming. Go into edit mode with Ctrl-3, then drag a selection box around the highlighted object to select it. Once selected, delete it.

There is a good chance that there more than once such object on the region, so you may have to repeat this a few times until you have located all of them.

Be aware that just as you have been spammed by this, so too have others, by your object. It isn't your fault; it is just how this thing works, unfortunately. Therefore, it is almost certain that the owner of the object that gave the “virus” item to you, is in turn an innocent victim.

See also “-[L4L]- Gestures & Walkers (Freebies) <3" griefing object

If you find yourself unable to sit on a prim, it may be for one of the following reasons:

• If the item you are trying to sit on is unscripted (or does not have a sit target defined) and you have placed it within the bounding box of another prim, such as a big piece of landscaping, then you will not be able to sit on it. You will need to either move the item out of the area of the prim, move the prim itself, or ask the creator to implement the sit target scripting correctly.
  
  You can verify by taking the item up to a height where there are no other prims at all, and sitting on it.

• Go to Preferences → Firestorm → Protection and ensure that “Block sitting on objects via left-click” is not checked.

• If you find you cannot sit on anything (or being forced to stand up immediately), scripted or unscripted (or even groundsit), on one sim only, but other avies can, the chances are one item has a broken script and is using the “llUnSit” script command repeatedly in error.
  
  To find out which item is preventing you from sitting:
  
  Starting with the last thing you sat on in the affected sim, take the item to inventory. Once taken, try to sit on something else. If you can sit, the item taken has the broken script. You have the choice of either re-rezzing that item and resetting the scripts (if it is mod) or just not rezzing it again.
  
  If you cannot remember which was the last item you sat on, take each item one at a time and try sitting until you have found the broken item.
  
  If the item belongs to someone else, that person will need to reset the scripts or unrez it.

Chat Lag affects all Group Chat, including Conference Chat, seemingly with no rhyme or reason.

There are times that Group or Conference Chat can fail entirely, and in some cases there is an explanation: each Group UUID determines which of the 16 chat servers will be used to handle delivery of text. A Conference Chat is also assigned a Temporary UUID for this purpose. The first character of the UUID (0-9, a-f) directs the chat to the tasked server.

If a particular server is offline, all Group and Conference Chat tasked to that server will fail. A ticket submitted to LL is the only way to remedy this situation.

If you have DNS errors trying to log in, or simply get disconnected during or immediately on log in, try flushing your DNS cache; how to do that is explained here for Windows, Linux, and Mac Snow Leopard. For Mac Lion and Mountain Lion, see here. For Mac Mavericks, see here.

if this doesn't help, then try setting your DNS to Google: Google Public DNS

Should using Google as a DNS not work for you then see here for alternate servers, or grab DNS Bench to help you locate one.

See below for other causes which are specific to your operating system.

DNS errors might be caused by anti-virus software; see this page for more on that.

This is a collection of symptoms, all or some of which you may be experiencing together. If you have them on Firestorm, then you will experience them on other V3 viewers (like the official LL viewer) but not on V1 viewers (like Phoenix). The fix is very easy but not especially intuitive.

Possible symptoms:

• Crashing or getting logged out on all or most teleports;
• Friends list and groups list not loading;
• Inability to view any mesh;
• Inability to view “About Land”;
• Inability to open notecards;
• SLVoice does not connect.

How to fix this:

• On your Mac, open System Preferences and go to Network > Advanced > DNS
• Hit the plus button (+) and type in the numbers 8.8.8.8.
• Hit the plus button (+) and type in the numbers 8.8.4.4.
  • If you live in Asia or Australia, you will need to use the following numbers instead of those just listed: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. Even those in other parts of the world might find this pair to work better, so if you complete the process and find no change, repeat it with this set.
• Close the System Preferences and restart your viewer.

What this does:

• This process adds GoogleDNS and/or OpenDNS to the DNS servers your Mac attempts to use. There is no need to delete the numbers already there; if the system cannot work with them, then it will go down the list until it finds one it can.
• The issue is related to Linden Lab JIRAVWR-26759. Any additional information we know about it is on that JIRA.
• If you would like to read about either of these DNSes before adding them to your system, you can visit their pages here for Google or or here for OpenDNS. You may have another set you would prefer to try besides these two, but as you can see on the Linden Lab JIRA, the changes in DNS are the only known fixes for this set of problems.

Acknowledgement to Queen Kellee for the way the step-by-step instructions were written.

If you use Hands Off! security software, try uninstalling it. So far, the evidence that this software may be related to this problem is anecdotal, but it is something to try.

Certain proxy redirectors external to the viewer can cause “DNS Could Not Resolve the Host Name” failure at login.
ProxyCap proxy redirector is known to cause this.

Several people have reported having the problem of the contents of an object never loading in the Edit window. One specific cause has been isolated: ByteFence Anti-Malware. If you have this program installed (and please note that it may have come pre-installed on your computer, or bundled with some other product), then try uninstalling it. See this page for instructions.

If you do not use this product, then one thing to check is whether you are being affected by region lag. So try going to a known low lag region where build is allowed, such as here, and see whether the issue persists there. If object contents load normally there, then the region you were working in before, likely has high lag, or issues of some other kind and may need restarting.

Otherwise, you may have connection-related problems. For that, try rebooting your network hardware (router and/or modem), then your computer. Other tips may be found here.

There are a few reasons for this, none of which are related to the viewer.

1. Your email address is not correctly listed
2. Your option to send IMs while offline is not enabled
3. Your email has not been verified
4. The messages are not being delivered

If in the viewer, go to the Avatar menu and choose Account. If not in the viewer, click on this link. Then click the Contact Information link and edit your email address. Enter your password and click Save Changes.

If in the viewer, go to the Avatar menu and choose Account. If you are not in the viewer, click on this link. You should now be in your account on the Second Life web site. Then check the box for “I would like to receive offline IMs via Email” and click Save Changes.

Second Life now requires an email verification step in order to send any emails to you, including offline messages. See the official instructions for how to do this here: https://community.secondlife.com/blogs/entry/2155-making-email-from-second-life-more-reliable/.

If your email address is correct, and the option to send IMs to email is enabled, and you have verified your email address, then the problem could be spam filters or server issues. Usually server issues don't occur, but server configuration could play a part.

First check your email's spam folder to see if the email is being incorrectly flagged.

If not there, then try using a different email address at a different provider (Yahoo, Google, etc.).

If IMs are delivered to the new address, contact your regular email provider and ask them if mail coming from “im.agni.lindenlab.com” is being blocked.

If IMs are still not delivered to the new email address, ask your friends if they have the same problem, check the Grid Status page and see if there is any reported issue, and then if nothing is there contact Second Life Support and report the issue. Make sure you tell them everything you've done, in detail.

Hotmail users, try the suggestion on this page.

July 5, 2014: Offline email to one set of providers not being delivered.

Problem: Web profiles display as plain text, with no images and only basic formatting.

Workaround: Open the profile in an external browser, or do the following steps:

1. Log out of Firestorm.
2. Download and install the latest SL viewer from https://secondlife.com/support/downloads/.
3. Open the SL viewer application folder.
4. Copy the “llplugin” folder. Note that you want the “llplugin” folder, not “slplugin.”
5. Paste it into the same location in the Firestorm application folder, so that it replaces the one in Firestorm.

1. Log out of Firestorm.
2. Download the latest SL viewer from https://secondlife.com/support/downloads/.
3. Open the tarball (double-click usually).
4. Navigate to the bin folder and select/Highlight the llplugin folder.
5. Click Extract and extract it to your Firestorm/bin folder, overwriting the existing folder (or drag llplugin into your Firestorm/bin folder).

• Web profiles not displaying properly is probably due to this issue: http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2014/10/this-poodle-bites-exploiting-ssl-30.html
• The problem is discussed here: http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/alternative-sl-clients/101338-web-profiles-broken.html
• This issue should be fixed in releases after 4.6.7.

If things around you remain grey for a long time, or objects take a long time to pop into position, this is essentially because the data has not yet been sent to your viewer. There are a number of possible causes, and solutions or at least work-arounds:

• If you have Webroot SecureAnywhere antivirus installed, refer to this page.

• Power down your router and/or modem. This generally means unplugging it from the power source. Leave them disconnected for at least a full minute before reconnecting. Wait for them to complete the power up sequence, then reboot your computer.

• Teleport out, then back in.

• The region is badly lagged (many avatars present, too many scripts running, etc.) and so the region server is using all its time processing and has very little time left over to deliver textures and other data to you. The best way to cope with this is to reduce the demand you make; in other words, reduce your draw distance, even to 12m or less, and wait until textures and objects have loaded before you increase it again.

• You are experiencing packet loss or, more generally, have a poor network connection. Or your bandwidth slider may be set too high. Bring up the stats bar with Shift-Ctrl-1 and check Packet Loss and Ping Sim. Ideally, packet loss should be 0.0%, and Ping Sim under 200ms.

• Determine optimal bandwidth: refer here.

• You can also try to have less textures draw all at once by reducing draw distance when you teleport. You can do this manually, or make use of the built in Progressive Draw Distance function.

• HTTP fetching may be overloading your router; please try the suggestions given here; if they do not help, revert the changes made then return to this page and continue.

• Another possibility is that DNS look-up is failing. Try changing DNS to google; see this page for details.

• Some other program on your computer might be interfering with your viewer's connection to SL, like a firewall or anti-virus. Try disabling them temporarily, to see if things improve. If they do, you have isolated the problem. Whitelisting the viewer and cache folder would probably help.

• It has been reported that on Windows, the Aero background theme will also lead to textures refusing the rez, due to how much memory this feature consumes. Uninstalling that should help.

• If mesh items, specifically, never rez, see Mesh Issues.

• Several creators recommend specific settings in order for you to be able to better see their products. Sadly, some of these recommendations will lead to many people crashing more or having other issues, including very slow rez. Please see this page for more.

The General Tab shows basic information about the current parcel. It can be accessed by first clicking the parcel's name in the top-bar of the client. The general tab also allows parcel owners to customize various essential aspects of their land.

• Name: The name of the parcel which will show on the top of the viewer when you are on the parcel, and in search if the parcel is set to show in search.
• Description: An additional description of the parcel which is visible in this window and in search results if the parcel is set to show in search. This also can be used to place keywords about the land to increase search results.
• Type: The type of region the parcel is located on (types being: Mainland or Estate/Full Region, Homestead, or Openspace).
• Rating: The maturity rating of the region, which can be: General, Moderate, or Adult. Depending on the rating, certain ages or those that are not age verified will not be permitted to enter.
• Owner: Indicates who “owns” the parcel, usually a specific resident, or group. Normal users do not actually have ownership rights like in real life. They have control over the parcel as long as they pay monthly maintenance fees directly or indirectly to Linden Lab (usually a premium and tier), who actually own the servers the region is hosted on. In this sense it is more like a lease in real life. The info (the “I” icon”) button will open the 'Profile' floating window for the listed owner.
• Group: In some cases it may become necessary to have a parcel set to a group (for instance, to grant access to a club based on who is in the VIP group). The Set button will open the Groups tab of the Communicate or Contacts window in order to set or change the group assignment.
• Allow Deed to Group: Allows the landowner to sell the parcel to the assigned group. The owners of the group become the new owners of the land. The Deed button opens the 'Deed to Group' window in order to transfer ownership. (See Group Land Ownership.)
• Owner Makes Contribution With Deed: When transferring ownership to a group, this check box also assigns land area from the owner's land allowance to the group at the same time. (See Tier for more information).
• For Sale: This shows for sale or not for sale status. If for sale, it shows price and whether for sale to anyone, or a specific person. If you own the land, buttons to set for sale, not for sale, or abandon the land will appear.
• Claimed: The date and time the current owner became the owner of the parcel.
• Area: The horizontal area of the parcel. Sloped land is measured in the XY horizontal plane, not along the slope. Land is divisible into units of 4×4 meters in size, so the minimum parcel area is 16 sq.m., and can be any multiple of 16 up to the full area of a region (256x256m or 65,536 sq.m.). A single parcel must be entirely within the boundaries of one region, but may consist of discontinuous pieces.
• Traffic: The number of avatar-minutes present on the parcel over the last measurement interval. Thus one avatar present for one hour = 60 traffic. The normal measurement interval is over the previous 24 hours, and is updated 2 times a day. (See Land Traffic For more information.)

There are buttons at the bottom of the window:

• Script Info: Opens the Script Information window giving details about script usage on the region and your avatar.
• Buy Land: If the parcel is for sale, this will open the Buy Land window, giving details so you can decide whether you wish to purchase it.
• Buy Pass: If the parcel requires paid access, you can click this to purchase an access pass.
• Abandon Land: If you own or rent the parcel, you can click this to return it to Linden control. You receive no payment for this.
• Buy for Group: Similar to Buy (above) except that you are purchasing the land for a specific group. See this SL Wiki page for more information.

The Covenant Tab shows you the basic rules set by the owner(s) of the Region. These rules are not set by Linden Labs and are enforced by the Region owners. It also displays basic information about the region and restrictions on transfer of land.

• Estate: The name of the estate. (For an overview of what regions and estates are, and the types of region, please refer to this SL Wiki page.)

• Owner: The Resident who “owns” the estate.

• Covenant: A Text Box displaying the Estate covenant. The covenant may be changed by region/estate owners or managers in the Region Details window, Covenant tab.

• Last Modified: Date and time the covenant was last edited (shown on right)

• Region: Each region has a unique name; names can only be changed via ticket on the Second Life website.

• Type: Regions may be Mainland or Estate, and Full, Homestead, or Openspace. Mainland regions may be owned in units of less than a full region, while Estate regions are only sold in full region units. Limits on number of objects and avatars are set according to type. Full regions may have 15,000 objects and 40-100 avatars, Homesteads may have 3,750 objects and 20 avatars, and openspaces may have 750 objects and 20 avatars.

• Rating: The maturity rating of the region determines the kind of activity and content is allowed in the region. It is one of General, Moderate, or Adult, and is set by the estate owner, or Linden Lab for mainland regions.

• Resale: Shows whether the parcel tenant may resell land to other residents.

• Subdivide: Shows whether the parcel tenant can subdivide land into smaller parcels. (See Terraforming, which includes information on how to join and subdivide parcels.)

• Region Object Bonus Factor: Sometimes Sim owners are able to give residents more prims than they would normally get. A 2x prim bonus will get you double prims.

• Primitive usage: Shows the number of primitives (prims for short) used on the land parcels owned by the same owner in this region. If you own more than one parcel, the total for all parcels in this region are given. Also shows the total number allowed, and number not used. Complex objects are made of more than one prims, so it is not the same as the number of objects. Prim allowances are shared among all parcels owned in the same region. You may distribute your actual objects as you see fit. For example, if you own three parcels, you can place all your objects on one of them, using the combined allowance of all three, and leave the other two empty.

• Prims parcel supports: Shows the number of primitives the current land parcel can contain. If the geometric center of an object is located within the parcel boundaries, all of its component prims are counted, even if some parts overhang onto other parcels. Prim allowances are proportional to land area as a fraction of the total allowed in the region. Hence if your parcel is 4096 sq.m., which is 1/16 the area of a full region, then it would receive 1/16 of a full region's allowance of 15,000 prims, or 937 prims (unless you are given a prim bonus by the Region owner).

Shows the actual number of prims on the parcel currently. The “Show” buttons under this heading will highlight the prims with white outlines, to make them easier to find. The “Return” buttons will take them off the parcel and return them to the “Lost and Found” folder of the owner.

• Owned by parcel owner: The number of prims owned by the avatar listed as the parcel owner.

• Set to group: The number of prims set to the same group as the General tab shows for the parcel.

• Owned by others: The number of prims owned by avatars other than the owner or group.

• Selected/sat upon: The number of prims currently selected or sat upon.

• Autoreturn: Allows a timed return of objects other than owner or group owned. If set to 0 the timer is off, otherwise will return items after a set number of minutes. This allows temporary placement of items.

• Object Owners: If you have the correct ability as owner or group member, provides a detailed list of object owners by name and allows returning those objects when highlighted.

This tab controls permissions and restrictions on the parcel for users other than the owner. Generally the parcel owner keeps full abilities on the parcel.

• Edit Terrain: If enabled, this grants the ability to any other resident to edit the terrain in the parcel. Do not grant lightly!

• Fly: Allow residents on the land to fly, if unchecked residents will notice their “fly” button has been disabled.

• Create Objects, Object Entry, Run Scripts: These permissions are divided into “All Residents”, and “Group”, which refers to the group set on the General tab. Object Entry refers to objects not attached to an avatar, such as a bullet fired from a gun. Run Scripts refers to all scripts, whether in attached or detached objects.

• Safe (no damage): If checked, disables combat ¹⁾.

• No Pushing: If checked, then pushes from objects is disabled. Pushing another avatar is often used to annoy them, and most regions have turned on this item to prevent it.

• Show Place in Search: If checked, the parcel will be listed in the Search window with the name and description from the General tab, and the snapshot below from this tab. A fee of L$30 per week is charged for listing in search, and optionally a category can be chosen from the dropdown menu on this item.

• Allow Residents on other parcels to - See and chat with residents on this parcel: If enabled, people outside the parcel will be able to see and chat with those inside the parcel; if disabled, anyone in the parcel will be invisible to those outside, no matter how close they may be.

• Moderate Content: This is the parcel rating.

• Category: Select the category of parcel from the drop-down.

• Snapshot: This image will be displayed in the “Search” results and landmarks created for the parcel. Clicking the image area will open the “Pick: Texture” floating window so that you can choose the image to display. Alternately, your chosen image can be dragged from your inventory to the image area.

• Landing Point: Lists the coordinates of the landing point if set, or (none) if not set. The set button will set the landing point to your current avatar position, and the clear button will unset it.

• Teleport Routing: Determines where teleport landings are allowed for other users. Blocked means that teleports into the parcel are not allowed; Landing point indicates that teleports are limited to the landing point set above; Anywhere means that teleports may arrive at any location on the parcel.

In this tab you set options concerning streaming media for the parcel. This means videos from services such as YouTube, web pages, and so on. Media content is displayed in place of a specific texture; all prims which have that texture will display it. Therefore, it is possible to turn an entire home into a TV.

For information on settings concerning streaming audio and voice, see this page.

• Type: Select the type of media to be displayed. Options are: audio, Image, Movie, Web Content. For TVs, this needs to be set to Movie. Note that many TVs will set this for you.
• Home Page: The URL to be displayed. Again, most TVs will set this for you. Opens the URL Entry window.
• Description: Description of the media being played. Generally set automatically.
• Replace Texture: Any prim face that has this texture will display the selected media. Use the Texture Picker to change it.
• Auto scale: Check to scale the content for this parcel automatically. It may be slightly slower and lower in visual quality, but no other texture scaling or alignment is required.
• Size: Allows you to define the size (height and width) of the displayed media, in pixels.
• Options - Loop: Play media in a loop. When the media has finished playing, it will automatically start again from the beginning. This option is only available for video media types.

If you have issues getting media to work for you, then please refer to Firestorm Media Help

This tab contains options relating to streaming audio, as well as other kinds of sounds, like voice. For information of media (videos, TV), see this page.

• + button: Add music stream URL to saved stream list.
• - button: Remove music stream URL from saved stream list.
• : Copy music stream URL to clipboard.
• Music URL: Enter a music stream address in M3U, MP3, OGG, or MP2 format for your parcel. If you own a SL radio, then this will be set for you.
• Sound - Restrict gesture and object sounds to this parcel: Check to disable gesture and object sounds playing on this parcel from being heard outside this parcel.
• Avatar Sounds: Controls whether sounds from avatars (from attachments, not gestures) will be heard in the parcel. You can allow sounds from everyone to be heard, or just group members, or no one at all (by unchecking both).
• Voice:
  • Enable Voice: Check to allow use of voice chat on your parcel.
  • Restrict Voice to this parcel: Check to limit open voice chat to your parcel. You can't use spatial voice chat with others standing outside your parcel, but private voice calls still work.