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

If your internet’s slow, it might not just be your internet plan. Ping, jitter, and packet loss are some network performance metrics that impact your internet speed greatly. Let’s break down these terms in detail, see how they affect your network, and what measures you can take to fix them:

What is Ping?

Ping or latency measures the trip time taken for the data signal to travel from the source to the destination and then back. The source is your computer, and the destination is the server that you’re connected to. It’s measured in milliseconds (ms), and the lower its value, the faster the data signals travel through the connection.

You might’ve seen gamers complaining about high pings or lag during gaming. This happens when the data signal takes too much time for the journey. As a result, the actions, such as a click, are delayed, and the game feels like stuck.

What is a Good Ping?

There’s been a widespread debate about the ideal ping rate. Even though the lower the ping, the better the connection speed, in many cases, even something under 100 ms gives a playable experience. This is due to the server that your device is connected to. In most cases, it’s not your connection but the problematic destination server. However, the most you can do in such a case is connect to a server with a lower ping.

The image shows average pings for various DOTA2 Servers.

Here’s how we can classify ping:

How to Test Ping?

A simple way of doing this is to run the basic speed test. You can perform a Google search for a speed test tool or use our tool below to run your speed test now:

Apart from this, you can use the command prompt on Windows or Network Utility for Mac to test your ping:

How to Fix Ping?

If your game, movie, or download just keeps getting stuck, your internet ping is quite high. Here are some fixes to deploy right away:

• Reboot the modem and router.
• Use Ethernet instead of WiFi.
• Disconnect idle devices.
• Disable background apps.
• Optimize router placement.

What is Jitter?

While ping is the time taken for the data signal to travel, jitter is the variation in its speed. In most cases, the ping doesn’t remain constant since the data signal can travel at various speeds. This variation is caused by the amount of data traveling through the connection.

For instance, texting can send and receive messages swiftly; however, sending a file and then receiving it can face delays as the connection needs to pack and unpack the file. Just like ping, jitter has to be of minimal value. The lesser the value, the more stable the ping.

If you’re on a video call and you can talk and hear the next person speak simultaneously, then there’s minimal jitter resulting in a stable ping. However, if there are speech delays at either end, then there’s high jitter, which causes the ping to fluctuate.

How to Test Jitter?

There’s no fixed value for jitter; however, its value should ideally be less than 50 ms. You can calculate your connections’ jitter by:

• Running multiple speed tests.
• Record the pings from each test.
• Subtract the new ping from the previous one.
• Take the average of these figures.

For example, if your ping readings are 40, 65, 38, 72, and 50 ms., the difference between consecutive pings would be 25, 27, 34, and 22 ms. The average of these variations comes out to 27 ms, which represents your connection’s jitter rate. Here’s a better illustration of good, bad, and worst jitter levels:

How to Fix Jitter?

If you’re facing issues like lag spikes, game glitches, and action delays suddenly, this indicates that your ping is fluctuating and jitter is high. Here’s what you can do to fix it:

• QoS (Quality of Service) implementation.
• Upgrading network equipment.
• Use jitter buffers.
• Better traffic management on the home network.

What is a Packet Loss?

As explained earlier, your data is sent in the form of signals. These signals carry packets of data that are encrypted at the source and then decrypted at the destination. However, in some cases, not all of the packets are able to reach their destination. This is known as packet loss.

Almost every connection faces 1-2% of loss from the entire packet stream. However, anything above this and your application or program becomes unusable because the data isn’t there. It’s just like sending group photos; with 1 or 2 missing, you can resend them later. However, with more packets missing, you’ll have to resend them all again, and that takes additional time.

However, unlike ping or jitter, packet loss is triggered due to hardware insufficiency. This happens when the devices used for certain applications are unable to download and upload the data faster and display the results in real-time.

How to Check Packet Loss?

In most software and even games, you can enable the WiFi status option. This option shows network values, including ping, packet loss, etc., in real time alongside FPS. However, you can use the following methods to determine the packet loss:

How to Fix Packet Loss?

Packet loss requires hardware assessment. You’ll probably need to upgrade your hardware to reduce packet loss while making use of the following fixes:

• Restart your internet equipment and devices.
• Update hardware and software.
• Scan the system for malware.
• Check and replace faulty cables.
• Optimize QoS settings.

Closing Thoughts

The key is choosing an internet plan that delivers the right speed for your usage needs. Once that’s covered, you can apply the above fixes to resolve any ping, jitter, and packet loss issues for a smooth gaming, streaming, and online experience.

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