what is packet loss?

[humpfry]

Hello. I would like to learn what packet loss is. I am trying to figure out why while playing my video game everything stops, and then 1 or 2 minutes later you see everything that was happening, happen in a split second. Then things start working semi normally again. I am guessing this is an affect of packet loss.
I am on a wireless network. The little icon in my utility tray that represents the wireless signal is always blinking. I have a netgear WG111 USB 2 wireless device. The server that i connect to, to play this game is in california.
Any comments will be appreciated.

 

[Zugzwang152]

Originally posted by: humpfry
Hello. I would like to learn what packet loss is. I am trying to figure out why while playing my video game everything stops, and then 1 or 2 minutes later you see everything that was happening, happen in a split second. Then things start working semi normally again. I am guessing this is an affect of packet loss.
I am on a wireless network. The little icon in my utility tray that represents the wireless signal is always blinking. I have a netgear WG111 USB 2 wireless device. The server that i connect to, to play this game is in california.
Any comments will be appreciated.

it's probably your wireless connection. it's very unreliable, especially for latency-sensitive programs such as gaming. I would bet if you plugged in somewhere you would be fine.

 

[ktwebb]

Wireless can be unreliable. As a blanket statement that is completely false. Packet loss is just dropped packets in the data stream.

Could be a signal problem but it sounds more like your using XP's wireless zero confi utility, Pre SP2. If your using XP and don't have SP2 installed, install it. No reason not to.

If you want to see if it is the WZC utility, once your up and running at your desktop and connected to the AP, click Start. Then Run. From the run box type services.msc. Once that MMC console opens scroll down to Window Zero Configuration. Right click it and click stop. You can also do this from the command line with net stop wzcsvc You only use that utility to associate to the AP and any configuration changes. Once your connected it can be stopped. That may solve your issue. If not then work on cleaning up your wireless environment.

 

[humpfry]

Originally posted by: ktwebb
Wireless can be unreliable. As a blanket statement that is completely false. Packet loss is just dropped packets in the data stream.

Could be a signal problem but it sounds more like your using XP's wireless zero confi utility, Pre SP2. If your using XP and don't have SP2 installed, install it. No reason not to.

If you want to see if it is the WZC utility, once your up and running at your desktop and connected to the AP, click Start. Then Run. From the run box type services.msc. Once that MMC console opens scroll down to Window Zero Configuration. Right click it and click stop. You can also do this from the command line with net stop wzcsvc You only use that utility to associate to the AP and any configuration changes. Once your connected it can be stopped. That may solve your issue. If not then work on cleaning up your wireless environment.

thank you for your help.