The Packets That Never Arrive

Networks deliver data in packets, and occasionally some simply vanish. This packet loss calculator turns sent-and-lost counts into the loss percentage — and shows what the loss does to your effective throughput.

The Calculation

Loss % = lost ÷ sent × 100. Below 2% is typical for healthy connections; above 5% breaks real-time applications. If you supply your link's bandwidth, the calculator applies the loss rate to estimate effective throughput — a 10% loss turns 100 Mbps into 90 Mbps.

Diagnosing the Drops

Run a prolonged ping (hundreds of packets, not a handful), test on wired vs Wi-Fi, and compare different destinations. Loss on one path but not another points to a specific hop; loss everywhere points to your own network or ISP.