Why do identical packet loss percentages show up on multiple hops simultaneously? e.g. 10 popping up for hops 2, 5, and 10 "in synch" (after the same trace). BTW, I love this program--and it has already helped me convince someone at my isp that one of their b/w vendors has some work to do.<br><br><br>

Packet loss uses the "samples to include" number to decide how far back to look. If you have this set to 10 samples, then you'll usually see multiples of 10 as your packet loss %. In the case you're talking about here, if you lose a single packet in a hop, you'll get 10% loss (1 sample out of 10 lost).<br><br>Packets are sent out pretty much simultaneously to all hops. This means you'll probably see packet loss coming in for all hops pretty much at the same time. If a router in your path decides to drop packets, it might be dropping more than one packet - it might drop a few of them (because of load issues, prioritization issues, or other problems) - and these lost packets will all be shown in Ping Plotter. Depending on the reason why packets are being dropped, it may be that some of them get through - and some don't, or that all but one gets through - or that no packets at all get through.<br><br>In any case, the dynamics of the network will mean that you *often* see multiple hops in the route having lost packets at the same time. These lost packets can usually all be attributed to the original router that dropped the packets (since all hops further down the route still have to go through the earlier routers - and have an opportunity to be lost at each router they come across).<br><br>If you up your "Samples to include" count to 0 (all), or some number higher than 10, you'll have a pretty good chance of getting different packet loss percentages on each hop (even if they do often show up at the same time).<br><br>I hope that explains it a bit. Feel free to re-address if I didn't cover all your questions.<br><br>

Hmm.. I *may* be getting it. So if PingPlotter sends out a mess of packets "nearly simultaneously" to all 12 hops, say, in a route--they are still discrete / separate / sovereign packets and the flaky router may have booted packets 2, 8, and 10 of PP's 12-packet "burst"? I'm assuming here that there's a gap maybe in microseconds between packets in the burst.<br>I'm gonna gush again here.. I really dig this program. I recommend it to everyone who's in the target market, and I hope you make a bundle!<br><br>

You're exactly right on how the packets are sent out - and the discreetness of them. <br><br>The amount of time Ping Plotter waits between sending out packets is specified in the Advanced Options screen under the "Packet Options" tab and using the "Time interval between hop traces" setting.<br><br>Thanks for the gush - and the referrals. I don't market Ping Plotter much at all - almost all of the sales are from referrals.<br><br>