Ping error message

Hi,

We have a very small network set up, a Netgear DG834M wireless modem/router
to which we have a desktop, a laptop and a network printer connected with
cables and we also connect another laptop wirelessly.

Having problems with communicating with our printer (now resolved) I tried
pinging the various connected devices from the DG834M and when I pinged the
desktop computer I get the following:-

Pinging 192.168.0.4 with 32 bytes of data:

echo reply from 192.168.0.4 : bytes=32 time < 100ms TTL=128
request time out,no response
echo reply from 192.168.0.4 : bytes=32 time < 100ms TTL=128
echo reply from 192.168.0.4 : bytes=32 time < 100ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 192.168.0.4:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 3, Lost = 1(25 %),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum < 100ms, Maximum = 3000ms, Average = 700ms

What does the lost packet mean? Everyting seems to be working normally and
if I ping connected devices, including the router from the desktop
(192.168.0.4) they all respond and no packets are lost.

I have tried another network cable between the DG834M and the desktop and it
didn't make any difference. Dowe have a potential problem I should be
worried about?

Brendan
(All replies to newsgroup please)

A ping is just a small amount of data sent from one machine to another and
then bounced back to the sender. If a packet is lost, it either didn't make
it to the machine you are pining or the response didn't make it back.

In windows, the default ping only sends 4 packets, which is sufficient to
verify if a machine is up, but little else. 4 packets just isn't
statistically relevant to determine whether you have a real issue.

I use with the -n 100 switch in order to send many packets to get a better
feel for how much I am dropping. also, in wireless, smaller packets tend to
have a better chance of survival. I often use the -l 1000 switch to send
larger packets.

ping /? will give you the exact syntax on how to perform these tasks.

From my experience, anything over 3% packet loss on a consistent basis is
worth looking into. At around 15% you have a significant problem. In
802.11 wireless, you can always expect to lose some packets.

Cheers,




--
Mark Gamache
Certified Security Solutions
http://www.css-security.com



"Brendan J Cuffe" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi,
>
> We have a very small network set up, a Netgear DG834M wireless
> modem/router to which we have a desktop, a laptop and a network printer
> connected with cables and we also connect another laptop wirelessly.
>
> Having problems with communicating with our printer (now resolved) I tried
> pinging the various connected devices from the DG834M and when I pinged
> the desktop computer I get the following:-
>
> Pinging 192.168.0.4 with 32 bytes of data:
>
> echo reply from 192.168.0.4 : bytes=32 time < 100ms TTL=128
> request time out,no response
> echo reply from 192.168.0.4 : bytes=32 time < 100ms TTL=128
> echo reply from 192.168.0.4 : bytes=32 time < 100ms TTL=128
>
> Ping statistics for 192.168.0.4:
> Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 3, Lost = 1(25 %),
> Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
> Minimum < 100ms, Maximum = 3000ms, Average = 700ms
>
> What does the lost packet mean? Everyting seems to be working normally
> and if I ping connected devices, including the router from the desktop
> (192.168.0.4) they all respond and no packets are lost.
>
> I have tried another network cable between the DG834M and the desktop and
> it didn't make any difference. Dowe have a potential problem I should be
> worried about?
>
> Brendan
> (All replies to newsgroup please)
>