Land Security Orb – User Guide

Second Life · Land Security

Egon’s Land Security Orb
A simple, menu-driven security system that keeps unwanted visitors off your land — set it up in a couple of minutes, no scripting knowledge needed.

 

What it does

The Security Orb watches the area around it. When someone who isn’t welcome shows up, the Orb can warn them and then send them away — by teleporting them home, ejecting them from your parcel, or banning them. People you trust (an “Access list”) are never touched, and you and your helpers get a pop‑up so you can decide what to do. You can also be notified by instant message or email whenever someone enters.

Everything is controlled by touching the Orb and picking from a menu. There is nothing to assemble and no scripting required.

Setting it up

The Orb is a ready‑to‑use object. Just place it and switch it on.

  1. Rez the Orb where you want it to sit. It must be on land you own or rent.
  2. Touch the Orb — the configuration menu opens (only admins can open it).
  3. Open Access List → Add and add the people who are allowed (you, friends, partners).
  4. Press Start and choose a mode (Normal for full protection). For safety the Orb starts stopped, so nothing happens until you start it.

If your land belongs to a group: the Orb must be deeded to that group, or it can’t remove anyone. To deed it:

  1. Right‑click the Orb → Edit.
  2. General tab → next to Group click Set… and choose the land’s group.
  3. Tick Share with group.
  4. Click Deed and confirm.

You stay the Chief‑Admin even after deeding — the Orb remembers you. It tells you in chat if it isn’t set up correctly and won’t report “ready” until it can actually protect the land.

Quick start

  1. Touch the Orb → Access List → Add and add yourself, friends, partners — anyone allowed to stay.
  2. Range defaults to the full 96 m — you only need to lower it for a small plot. For bigger areas use Full Parcel (drones).
  3. Press Start → Normal. Done — the area is protected, and you’ll briefly see a scan bubble showing the covered radius.

The status display

The Orb floats a small line of text above itself so you can see its state at a glance:

status: RUNNING
mode: NORMAL   eject: TP‑Home
group: OFF   range: 96 m   warn: 45 s
--- /5help for commands

When drones are deployed, range shows full parcel instead of a metre value.

You can turn this text off under More… → Visual → Text OFF.

Touch the Orb to open the menu. The main buttons:

Button What it does
Start Turns protection on — you then pick the mode: Normal, Silent or Passive.
Stop Turns protection off.
Eject Mode What happens to someone who’s removed, plus Ban Hours and Warn Time.
Access List People who are always allowed.
Ban List People who are always blocked.
Admins Helpers who may also operate the Orb.
Range How far around the Orb it watches — default and max 96 m; lower it for a small plot. Includes a Full Parcel button to deploy drones.
Temp Time How long a temporary pass lasts.
Group Mode Let a whole group in (or make them admins).
Auto‑Ban Automatic checks (scripts, account age).
Visitors The enter/leave log, and the IM‑alert switch.
More… Owner extras: Visual (range scan), Email, Backup, Drones, Permissions.

Protection modes

You choose the mode when you press Start.

Mode Behaviour
Normal Blocks everyone who isn’t on your Access list. The strictest mode.
Passive Lets everyone visit except people on the Ban list. You still get alerts — good as a visitor tracker.
Silent Like Passive, but no on‑screen alarms — it quietly logs visitors (and can still IM/email you) and removes only banned people. This is the “silent watch”.

Warnings & removal

In Normal mode you can give people a grace period before they’re removed (Eject Mode → Warn Time: 0, 15, 30 or 45 seconds; the default is 45).

  • The visitor gets a pop‑up warning they must click away, with a countdown.
  • You and your admins get a pop‑up to choose: Kick & Ban, Kick only, Access 4h (let them stay 4 hours) or Access perm (add them permanently).
  • If nobody reacts in time, the visitor is removed automatically.

Eject Mode — how someone is removed

Option Effect
TP‑Home only (default) Teleports them to their home — gentle, no ban. If they have no home set, Second Life sends them to a Linden welcome hub.
Ban + TP‑Home Sends them home first, then adds them to the parcel ban list so they can’t return.
Eject only Pushes them off your parcel (they stay in the region).
Ban Hours How long a parcel ban lasts (0 = forever, up to 24 h).

Banned avatars are removed automatically the moment the Orb next sees them (within a few seconds), so there is no need for a manual “eject now”.

Letting people in / out

Access List — trusted people who are never removed. Use Add to pick someone nearby, Remove to take them off, List to see who’s on it. You can also add or remove people by name in chat, even when they’re offline (see chat commands).

Ban List — people who are always blocked.

Temp Time — when you grant a temporary pass, this sets how long it lasts (15 min up to 24 h).

One-click un-ban. Banned the wrong person? Un-banning now removes them from the ban list and automatically lifts the Second Life parcel ban for you — so they can come straight back, no trip to About Land. Use Ban List → Remove, Access List → Add, or the chat command /5 add First Last (works even when they are offline).

Admins & Advanced

The land owner is always the Chief‑Admin with full control — and stays Chief even after the Orb is deeded to a group. You can add Sub‑Admins (helpers).

Who Can do
Chief (owner) Everything. The Chief can never be removed as admin. Switch your own view to the simple menu with /5easy and back with /5advanced.
Sub‑Admins The everyday menu: start/stop, eject mode, access & ban lists, add admins, group mode, visitor log. By default they can’t use Visual, Email, Backup or Drones — those stay with the Chief.

Want your sub‑admins to have everything too? Open More… → Perms and press Activate Advanced (the button then shows Deactivate Advanced). This unlocks all functions — drones, email, rename, IM alerts, and the advanced chat commands — for your sub‑admins. Only the Chief can change this setting.

Group mode

Set the Orb to a group, then choose under Group Mode:

Setting Effect
Access Everyone in that group is automatically allowed.
Admin Everyone in that group is automatically an admin.
Off Group membership is ignored.
Important: Second Life only detects a visitor’s active group tag, not plain membership. Each person must set that group as their active title (Groups → activate the group) to be recognized by Group Access/Admin. If they can’t, add them to the Access List instead.

Automatic protections

Under Auto‑Ban you can automatically remove avatars who:

  • wear too many scripts (great for keeping a laggy club or shop smooth);
  • have an account younger than a chosen number of days;
  • have an account older than a chosen number of days.

Set any value to 0 to switch that check off.

Rental link (CasperLet)

The Orb can follow a CasperLet rental meter so renters are handled automatically – no extra script goes into the meter, and nothing clutters anyone’s inventory.

Linking (Chief only)

  1. Open More… > Rental > Link.
  2. Touch / open your CasperLet meter on this parcel so it sends an update.
  3. The Orb detects the meter on your parcel and asks you to confirm – press Link. From then on it follows only that one meter. Unlink clears it.

While linked:

  • A new renter is automatically added as a sub-admin.
  • When the rental ends (eviction or expiry), that renter’s admin/access is removed and the visitor log, ban list and access list are reset.

Works for any owner, and also when the Orb is deeded to a group (the Chief stays the same). CasperLet only for now (Hippo uses a different system). Assumes one meter per parcel.

Coverage & the range scan

The Orb itself watches up to 96 m, which is also the default — lower the Range only if you want a smaller bubble. For anything larger than 96 m, use the Full Parcel button (in the Range menu) to deploy drones. Drones are recommended from about 16368 sqm or a full parcel/region, and are always required to also cover extra altitudes.

See your coverage: under More… → Visual, press Show Scan Now to light up a bubble of the covered radius for a few seconds. By default the Orb also shows this scan automatically each time you press Start (Auto‑Scan, which you can switch off).

Covering a large area (drones)

For a parcel bigger than the Orb’s 96 m reach, it can deploy four invisible drones that spread across your parcel and watch together.

  1. Open More… → Drones.
  2. Press Deploy. The Orb detects your parcel’s boundaries automatically — the drones never leave your land, even on a full region. Press Recall to bring them back.

Different heights: the drones cover the height the Orb sits at. To also protect a skybox, add extra heights under Drones → Altitudes (e.g. 1000, 2000), then Deploy. Up to 8 height layers.

On a small parcel the Orb covers everything on its own and will simply tell you that drones aren’t needed. Drones also remove themselves automatically if the Orb is taken away, so you never leave “orphan” drones behind.

Alerts: IM & email

The Orb can tell you when someone enters your parcel — even while you’re away.

Instant message — turn it on under Visitors → IM ON, or in chat with /5 imon (/5 imoff to stop). You’ll get an IM such as [09:34 SLT] [My Orb @ Region] Name Resident | entered. IM alerts go to the Chief.

Email — under More… → Email, set your address and switch Notify on. Same alerts, by email — handy when you’re offline.

Both are off by default. In Silent mode these private alerts are the perfect quiet way to keep an eye on who comes and goes.

Visitor log

Visitors → Show Log lists recent arrivals and departures — each line shows the time, the name and what happened (entered, left, INTRUDER warned, banned, and so on). Clear Log empties it. The log is also a great record of who visited while you were away.

Naming your Orb

Give the Orb your own name with /5 rename My Estate Guardian. The new name then appears in chat and in your IM/email alerts (e.g. My Estate Guardian: …). The name is remembered.

Chat commands

Type these in normal chat on channel 5 (e.g. /5 deploy). Some are open to all admins; others are Chief‑only (or any sub‑admin once you’ve activated Advanced).

Command Action
/5 help Show quick help. any admin
/5 add First Last Add someone to the Access list (works even if they’re offline). any admin
/5 remove First Last Remove someone from the Access list. any admin
/5 addadmin First Last Add a sub‑admin. any admin
/5 removeadmin First Last Remove a sub‑admin (the Chief can’t be removed). any admin
/5 imon · /5 imoff Turn IM alerts on / off. Chief
/5 rename <name> Rename the Orb. Chief
/5 deploy · /5 recall Send out / call back the drones. Chief
/5 1000 · /5 list · /5 clear Add/remove a drone height (here 1000 m); list; clear. Chief
/5 import … Restore a backup (see below). Chief
/5 easy · /5 advanced Switch your own menu between simple and full. any admin
/5 ch 7 Change the command channel (here to 7). Chief

Names are matched grid‑wide, so /5 add works even when the person isn’t in the region. Use the legacy name (“First Last”; a missing last name is treated as “Resident”).

Backup & restore

Under More… → Backup, choose Export (IM) or Export (Email). The Orb gives you ready‑to‑use restore lines, for example:

/5 import access <ids…>
/5 import ban <ids…>
/5 import admin <ids…>

To restore — into the same Orb or a new one — just copy each line and say it in chat. This works even on a no‑modify Orb because it’s all done through chat. Keep an export somewhere safe if you ever want to move your lists to an upgraded Orb.

Estate managers & Linden staff

Once, then left alone. If the Orb removes an estate manager or the region owner and it has no effect (they are immune), it acts once and then leaves them alone until the Orb is next started or reset — so you are never spammed, even if they walk right back in. Add them to your Access list to have them ignored for good.

Linden Lab staff are recognised automatically and are never warned, banned or ejected.

Estate managers and the region owner can’t be detected automatically — Second Life provides no way for any parcel device to know who they are (this is a platform limitation, not specific to this Orb). In practice the system also prevents parcel tools from banning them. If you want a specific manager to be completely ignored, simply add them to your Access list.

Troubleshooting

The Orb says it “cannot operate here”

The land isn’t owned by / deeded to the Orb’s owner. If the land is group‑owned, deed the Orb to that group (see the setup box). Otherwise, move the Orb onto your own parcel.

It removed someone it shouldn’t have

Un-ban in one step: Ban List → Remove (or Access List → Add, or /5 add First Last) — that removes them from the ban list and lifts the Second Life parcel ban automatically, no need to touch About Land. The Orb also ships with gentle defaults (Eject Mode = TP-Home only, Warn Time = 45 s), so mistakes just send people home, with a warning first.

Nothing happens when someone enters

Check that the Orb is started, that the person isn’t on your Access List or in an allowed group, and that your Range covers the spot. Remember the Orb only acts on land its owner controls.

FAQ

Do visitors see anything?

Only an intruder being warned/removed gets a private pop‑up. Trusted people notice nothing.

Will it disturb my neighbours?

No. The Orb only acts on its owner’s own land, and the drones stay strictly inside your parcel.

Do my settings survive a reset or rez?

Yes — your lists and settings are stored in the Orb and survive resets and being taken back into inventory. For extra safety, keep a Backup export.

What’s the default admin?

When the Orb is first rezzed, Egon Takeda is added as a sub‑admin so support is possible. The owner can remove this at any time.

Support

If you have any problems using this product, please contact Egon Takeda directly in Second Life, or use our contact form. You can also post in the Egon’s Estate forum. For the latest documentation, visit egons.estate/gadgets/landorb.

Egon’s Land Security Orb — User Guide · Second Life. All product functions are standard, owner‑authorised land tools.