[Opensim-users] Some Suggestions?

[BoneZ]

Hi all,

OpenSim is Great!
I wish I knew more about c# so I could participate. I think you folks 
are doing a wonderful job.

I've been testing OpenSim for about 2 weeks... trying to come up with a 
somewhat stable environment to use for a private group.
I have a few questions which might help the noobs to OpenSim like 
myself... lol.

I've tried both windows server 2003/mysql and sqlite - and centos 
linux/mysql and sqlite - and finally xp sp2 with mysql and also sqlite.
The win2003 and linux servers are dedicated servers with 10mb 
connections and the xp was via dsl.  I've also tried the .4, .5, 
realXtend .1 and .2 and finally .5.1.

My first attempt was with xp/dsl... the dsl connection is 4mb down/500kb 
up... seemed to work well for me so I invited 3 friends to help test 
it.. they would crash whenever they tried to change appearance.  I 
thought maybe it was a bandwidth issue so I uploaded it to a dedicated 
server I have.. Linux first.. similar results.  Windows 2003 next... 
similar results.

To me... MySQL seems less stable than SQLite ... is this common?

I've not yet been able to get a combination which is stable enough to 
use for my group... seems I always need to babysit to restart on crashes.
I've been getting crashes from the user server and OpenSim.exe.

What seemed to be most stable for me was running everything except grid 
server using SQLite, but still it would randomly crash.

1. What is the preferred (most stable) method right now of running 
OpenSim... SQLite, MySQL - I haven't tried MSSQL.

2. How does sandbox mode compare to grid mode?  Is grid mode meant to be 
used only when connecting to someone else's grid or allowing others to 
connect to yours?

3. If I don't care to connect my regions to someone elses grid or allow 
others to connect to my regions is there any other benefits to using 
grid mode over stand-alone?

I've visited some of the other grids and am impressed with the stability 
they seem to have and I'm thinking maybe I'm doing something wrong.
I would like to hear some comments from other's about how they've been 
able to overcome the stability issues they may have experienced as it 
may help me and others figure out what they are doing wrong.

How is OSGrid able to run so stable?  Does it crash regularly? 

Thank-you.