What are Packets?

Sharky Forums


Results 1 to 6 of 6

Thread: What are Packets?

  1. #1
    Reef Shark ZooKeeper's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Posts
    437

    What are Packets?

    When I bring up my Local Area Connection I get a box that says
    Status: Connected
    Duration: 1 day 05:39:42
    Speed 100.0 Mbps

    Activity

    Sent --- Received

    Packets 214,772 --- 219,649

    I want to know what is meant by packets sent and received.

    The reason I ask is because my laptop, which is on a wireless connection, has two network cards. One built in and a Lynksis external card I recently purchased. For some reason they can both work at the same time, but the packets sent and received are miles apart. [The above numbers are for my desktop, which is hardwired in. The numbers for my laptop, including Mbps, are much smaller.]

    Is there a benchmark number? What is good and what is bad? Why would there be such a discrepancy?

    Thanks.
    Last edited by ZooKeeper; 10-28-2005 at 04:11 PM.
    Zoo

  2. #2
    Great White Shark
    Join Date
    Nov 2000
    Posts
    21,595
    Packets = a fixed size unit of data (message) that has the protocol headers and trailers added. A message can be made up of 1 or more packets. Packet sizes are determined by protocol parameters.

    For a more indepth view of the work your NICs are doing open a cmd window and enter netstat -es.
    Last edited by ua549; 10-28-2005 at 04:49 PM.

  3. #3
    Hammerhead Shark Soul Assassin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Heartbreak Hill
    Posts
    2,366
    Your laptop cards might both be turned on at the same time but if they ever jump onto different networks (like one attaches to a neighbor's network) you're probably going to get errors regarding multiple gateways. You'd do best to disable one of the two wifi cards. If they are both on the same network you probably won't get any network errors but I don't have enough experience with that to make a judgement.

    In regards to the Mbps, your hardwire is going to get 10, 100 or 1000Mbps per second since those are the Ethernet standards. For WiFi you could get anywhere from 1 to 54Mbps depending on your signal quality, usually in increments of 1, 2, 11, 24, 36, 54. Those are the current WiFi standards. If you have Speedboost or Pre-N or something you could get 108Mbps or any other weird number.

    There's no "benchmark" for packets sent and received. If you send and receive a lot of data you'll have a lot of packets. If you don't, you won't. The information itself is really useless for a lot of things. It's helpful when you're trying to determine if you're having trouble communicating though, since you'll see the sent packets going up but the receive packets stay the same. AKA the laptop is trying to talk to the router but the router isn't answering.

  4. #4
    BozoKiller
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Zoso
    Posts
    7,636
    to add;
    generally the info d/l is much more than the info uploaded in a typical Internet conn - you can see this when watching dialup accounts too especially -- there's not much need to send much info for your browser's 'keep alive' function, ICMP pings, and Network overhead (general network babble).

    Your work "desktop" likely has a more 'even' ratio (50up/50down) b/c at work, you're usually transfering almost as much as receiving across the LAN (speculative). At home, or on the go, with the Laptop - there's no "edited / project work files" that need to be saved/sent back to the LAN's "server"...or even other work members.

    i hope i understood your question correctly
    Delete the Electoral College - Support
    www.NationalPopularVote.com

    "The world according to DRM Bozos"

    I am a consumer, I'll buy anything
    I am a sheep, I am cattle, I follow the herd
    I am ignorant, a dumbass, and I am a bozo...
    I am the epitome of the 'rank and file'
    I am your next door neighbor
    I am 95% of American Consumers
    I will consume you

    • If the light in your head hasn't come on yet,
      I suggest you go get a new bulb!

  5. #5
    Gibson Les Paul Shark RPG Junkie's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2000
    Posts
    5,680
    To get even more technical on what a packet is. Its a way that the compter organizes information on the third layer of the OSI model. Translation = thats just what the information that one is sending out to another computer is formatted in. Its formatted and packaged in a set limit of bits called a "packet". When one gets to say layer two, then they become frames with more information (like MAC addresses and whatnot) is encapsulated with the original information that one is trying to transmit.

    Think of packets between computers as literal packages that transmit a message. Sometimes it might only take one packet to transmit the needed information, almost always though it takes more than one...
    Last edited by RPG Junkie; 10-29-2005 at 03:30 PM.

  6. #6
    BozoKiller
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Zoso
    Posts
    7,636
    packets = words in a sentence

    esta bien ?

    ...just that most have the same amount of characters (size)
    Delete the Electoral College - Support
    www.NationalPopularVote.com

    "The world according to DRM Bozos"

    I am a consumer, I'll buy anything
    I am a sheep, I am cattle, I follow the herd
    I am ignorant, a dumbass, and I am a bozo...
    I am the epitome of the 'rank and file'
    I am your next door neighbor
    I am 95% of American Consumers
    I will consume you

    • If the light in your head hasn't come on yet,
      I suggest you go get a new bulb!

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •