Ping, Jitter, and Packet Loss: What They Are & How to Fix Them

Whenever I experience lag in the middle of streaming my favorite show, a multiplayer gaming session, or an important video call for work, all I can think is: you had one job, internet! The sad part is that I don’t even get to say “You’re fired!”

Anyway, whenever your internet makes you feel like you were born to wait and burn, remember that one or more of three culprits are at play - Ping, Jitter, and Packet Loss. This trio can make or break your home network’s performance.

So, what is ping, jitter, and packet loss exactly? Let’s break down these intimidating terms into simple words and learn how to escape their wrath.

What is Ping?

Ping is a synonym of latency, which represents the time it takes a data packet to travel from your device to a designated server and back. In gaming, ping can be described as the delay between action and response.

For example, when you press a key to make your game avatar jump, you want it to take effect immediately; a few seconds of lag could be game over for you.

Ping and Latency are often used interchangeably but ping is the test and latency is the measure of time taken for data to travel between two points on a network.

 

How Does Ping or Latency Work?

Since ping/latency corresponds to a round trip of a , it will be the sum of request processing and response delivery time. Ping is measured in milliseconds (ms), and the lower it is, the smoother your gameplay or streaming experience.

What is Ideal Ping for Gaming, Streaming, and Browsing?

High bandwidth activities that involve real-time interactions require low latency. Therefore, the acceptable latency for online activities like multiplayer gaming, live streaming, and video conferencing would be below 100ms; a ping below 50ms is ideal.

High latency or ping (120ms or above) becomes noticeable during gameplay in the form of low frame rates, stuttering/glitches, immobility, and overall poor performance. Light bandwidth activities like casual/standard streaming and general browsing are not significantly affected by latency up to 200ms.

How to Test Your Ping?

Most online games display your connection’s ping or latency someplace on the screen. You can also know your internet’s ping by using a free online speed test tool.

Finally, to run a ping test on your PC, you can use the following guidelines:

What is Jitter?

A jitter is the fluctuation in your connection’s latency or ping rate over a given period. While constant high latency is frustrating with delays or lags, latency that rapidly switches between highs and lows is just as problematic.

Jitter happens when data packets arrive at varying speeds, resulting in information gaps that negatively impact network performance and quality.

How Jitter Affects Online Activities?

High jitter or awfully inconsistent latency may cause:

• Choppy or distorted audio/video
• Frozen or pixelated images
• Call drops
• Frequent server disconnections

What Are the Normal vs. High Jitter Levels?

How to Measure Jitter?

To know your internet connection’s jitter level, you can perform several ping tests over fixed time intervals and calculate the divergence. Suppose you performed 6 ping tests every 5 minutes and got the following results: 51ms, 47ms, 79ms, 55ms, 87ms, and 64ms.

Now, you find the difference between each consecutive result:

• 51-47 = 4
• 47-79 = 32
• 79-55 = 24
• 55-87 = 32
• 87-64 = 23

Your connection’s jitter will be the average of all these values:

(4+32+24+32+23) ÷ 5 = 23ms

What is Packet Loss?

In case you weren’t aware, all information transferred across your network is divided into small chunks called data packets. When all these data packets reach their destination in one piece harmoniously, you get a smooth user experience. If too many of these data packets fail along the way, this leads to the phenomenon called packet loss.

How Does Packet Loss Impact Network Performance?

Packet loss causes gaps in data transfer and results in incomplete information. A good internet connection typically has a packet loss rate of 2% or less; when the percentage exceeds 2% over a ten-minute time frame, you may encounter:

• Missing or partially corrupt files
• Sudden shift in video frames
• Patchy video and audio that are not in sync

How to Check for Packet Loss?

Ping vs. Jitter vs. Packet Loss: Symptoms, Causes, & Fixes

The Ultimate Solution

If you fail to troubleshoot your network ping, jitter, and/or packet loss, take this as a sign that the problem resides at the back end. Check your internet’s performance using a speed test so you know that your provider is delivering the speeds and latency it’s supposed to.

In case all looks well, you might need a more robust internet plan to meet your speed and data needs. Upgrading to a higher-tier plan will equip you with greater bandwidth and improve your network’s overall performance.

On the contrary, when the speed test results are in, and it’s evident that your internet provider is at fault, you should contact customer service and support to report the issue. There’s nothing more to do as long as the issue is efficiently resolved from their side; if not, consider switching providers.

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