Connecting

Obtaining OpenSimulator Available Viewers
OpenSimulator does not come with a viewer in its distribution.

You'll need to download an OpenSimulator compatible client/viewer before connecting to OpenSimulator grids or regions.

Please see Compatible Viewers


 * Note that some grids may prefer that you use a particular viewer (even a particular version) so follow that grid instructions.

Connecting to the Grid with A Grid Selector (Recommended)
Most viewers have a grid selector which in many cases is already visible, and located at the bottom of the login screen. If it is not visible, try pressing Ctrl-Shift-G to (un)hide the grid selector.

If the grid is present in the list
If you see the grid you want to connect to in the grid selector, then simply choose it from the drop down menu, enter the username and password that you chose when you created your account on that grid, and click the "Log in" button.

If the grid is missing from the list
If your preferred grid is not present in the drop down menu, then you will have to add it manually. You will have to do this only once. First, find the grid manager. Usually, this can be found in the preferences of your viewer, in a tab called "Grids". In general, the only fields that you will have to fill in are:


 * Grid Name (or alike) - A name you can easily identify the grid by. OpenSimulator grids don't use this information, so you can name it anything you like.
 * Login URI - The most important information. It should be like " http://someserver:9000" or "http://someserver". For instance, for OSGrid, this is "http://login.osgrid.org/".

Near these fields, you will also find a button named "Get Grid Info" or similar. If you click it, it may fill out several blank fields with URIs. In some cases, clicking the button will cause an error message to pop up, or in rare cases, freeze the viewer. If clicking the button causes problems of any kind, you can leave the remaining fields empty, or find the missing info and add it manually. Leaving the fields empty will normally not cause problems, and you will still be able to log in to that grid, although on some grids, some features may be unavailable until the missing info is added.

Click the "Apply" or "OK" button to store your new grid in the menu, and you will be ready to log in as explainted under If_the_grid_is_present_in_the_list

For instructions that are specific for your favorite viewer, see your viewer's website.

Connecting to the Grid with Viewer Parameters
If your viewer doesn't have a grid selector, or if you are having problems adding the grid to your viewer's grid list, then an alternative method is to use viewer parameters.

Basically, all you will really need is to pass the --loginuri command line parameter to the viewer and launch with it, although you will want to use all of the viewer parameters that are suggested for your preferred grid.

For example, you use a viewer on Windows, and you want to connect to OSGrid. A quick-and-easy way would be as follows:

viewer-name.exe --loginuri http://login.osgrid.org/ --loginpage http://www.osgrid.org/splash/
 * Press Windows Key + R, this will open the Run dialog.
 * In the Run dialog, enter the following:
 * Press "Enter", or click "OK" and your viewer should start. After clicking the login button, you will enter OSGrid.

On OSX, you could also use AppleScript, which enables you to select multiple grids to connect to. See the OSX Grid Selector Script article for a pre-made script.

Connecting to your locally hosted server from behind a DSL router using NAT
Loopback Most DSL routers/modems prevent loopback connections as a security feature. This means that a NATed IP address ( such as 192.168.2.40 ) can not connect to your forward facing IP address ( such as 199.149.252.44 ) from behind your DSL router/modem. In a case like this, external IP addresses may connect to your server/region but you can not ( this applies to both standalone and grid modes ).

List of routers featuring NAT Loopback : NAT Loopback Routers

Router solution If you are using a ZyXEL DSL router/modem from Embarq, please read this guide. This will show you how to reconfigure your DSL router/modem to fix this problem. Similar solutions may exist for other DSL router/modems. A Google search for the make and model of your DSL router/modem may provide you with a manual to assist you in this.

A word of caution : be VERY careful what you change and take good notes along the way so you can undo any changes you make in error.

DNS solution(Linux) It's possible to host your own DNS-server, so you can prevent some of the dns-naming problems mentioned before. If http://example.org resolves to the external ip, and that loopback connection is prevented by your router, you could point your resolv.conf to a local nameserver like: nameserver 192.168.2.2 Now you need bind/named installed in order to handle the dns-requests. You can find a bind example configfile here.