What Is Ghosting and How to Avoid it

Ghosting: The event in which an avatar appears to be online but infact is not.

That should pretty much explain what ghosting is. This phenomenon occurs usually when a resident crashes, logs out wrong, shuts down the computer without logging out, or logs out due to time out. However other reasons can cause Ghosting; logging out in high lag regions, during mid teleport, right after teleport, or in limbo. All of these and more can cause ghosting which will give you this error: Login failed; Your account is not accessible until (date/time) How to Avoid Ghosting:

1)Use the Official Second Life Viewer: That's right, the Official viewer. Third parties do offer a lot more features especially in building with their viewers. However they aren't entirely compatible with the Second Life Grid. Using a third party viewer can cause inventory loss, particle clouds, and Ghosting among other issues. More people Ghost on a third party viewer than anyone does on the Official Viewer.

2)Clear your cache before Logging out: This is Extremely important. You do not need to be tech savvy to understand that if your browsers cache is too full it is going to cause problems. The same holds true for the Viewer. You need to clear out the cache often to avoid problems. If you do not know how to clear the cache you can find out here.

3)Log out in low lag Regions: Lag will cause issues and Ghosting is one of them. Log out in locations with Low Lag such as; Ahern, Pooley, Grasmere or other locations. Logging into these locations too will help.

4)Check your internet connection:Why internet? you use wireless and have no problems so why worry? Just because you don't see problems now doesn't mean there won't be. Also if you are seeing problems but only on one account don't automatically assume your internet is okay. You should when all possible use a Direct connection when accessing Second Life.(Not an ethernet cable in the router an actual connection to the modem) Wireless can cause packet loss, which will cause problems with your account; Vanishing purchases, inventory loss, particle clouds, and GHOSTING.

5) Always log out before shutting down your computer: Yes with Second Life you can log out wrong, and the best way to do that is logging out by shutting down your computer.

What happens if my account is ghosted?

You need to contact support Via Live chat(premium members only) or the Ticket system at the support portal. They will need to clear the avatars presence inworld before you can log back in.