When everything is working properly, each data packet should reach its destination. However, when there are problems with links or routers (e.g. overload), packets may be lost. It takes considerable time to detect and resend a lost packet, so performance drops dramatically with even a relatively small amount of packet loss. As a rule of thumb, packet loss should be less than 1 percent. Packet loss of more than 5 percent is serious.

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by bixantine edited by ThirdShifter
last modified: 2003-04-15 08:16:55