Packet Loss Impact Explainer

Enter your packet loss percentage and game type to understand what you'll experience in-game and what to do about it.

Packet Loss: 2%

0% 1% 3% 5% 10% 20%

Game Type

Ping (ms) optional context

Connection Quality Scale

0% — Excellent 1% — Good 3% — Degraded 5% — Poor 10%+ — Unplayable

Degraded

Noticeable in competitive games. Survival games mostly OK.

! Occasional missed shots even with correct aim — server doesn't receive the packet.
! Rubber-banding: your character snaps back to previous positions.

1
Use a wired Ethernet connection

Wi-Fi is the leading cause of home packet loss due to wireless interference and channel contention. A Cat5e/Cat6 cable eliminates local air-interface jitter and loss.
2
Restart your router and modem

Consumer network gear can exhaust NAT/connection tables or experience memory leaks. A cold reboot resets state tables and clears local buffer congestion.
3
Check cables and connectors for damage

Bent, kinked, or damaged Ethernet/coaxial cables cause physical-layer FCS (Frame Check Sequence) errors and packet drops. Swap cables to isolate.
4
Enable QoS (Quality of Service) on your router

Configure SQM (Smart Queue Management) or QoS to prioritize real-time game UDP traffic over bulk downloads/streaming, preventing bufferbloat packet loss.
5
Isolate path loss with sustained MTR / PingPlotter analysis

Traceroute maps the routing path but does NOT prove per-hop loss, because routers frequently deprioritize/rate-limit ICMP TTL-exceeded generation on their control planes (Cisco RFC 1812 guidance). Instead, use MTR or WinMTR over several hundred probes: true network loss continues through downstream hops all the way to the destination.
6
Check DNS for initial matchmaking/connection issues only

DNS only resolves domain names during initial server discovery and match connection setup. DNS does NOT cause or fix packet loss during an active in-game session. If matchmaking fails entirely, verify 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8.