I am told that we are monitoring and reading dropped packets from some of the routers at our isp. I am not sure what amount of dropped packets there are as a percentage of total bandwidth, over the time that we are monitoring. Should i be concerned about that fact or is it a problem that i am seeing dropped packets at all on our isp's routers. Thanks
dropped packets
Feb 15, 2007
1 Replies
It does depend a great deal on the circumstances.
In some cases you shuold see no dropped packets however it is as well to bear in mind that TCP is designed to cause routers to drop packets.
Let me repeat in case it wasn;t clear:-
TCP is designed to cause routers to drop packets.
If you have sufficiently fast hardware TCP increases the data rate being sent until a dropped packet (or more) is detected. Then it backs off and repeats.
We sometimes get them on our LAN e.g. during backups.
Packets can also be dropped because routers are overloaded. You pretty much need to take each case as it comes.
I am sure that if you post more details then someone here will offer some comments.
what model of router what are its interfaces what bandwidth are they are the drops input drops or output drops]
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