When there is latency, data may not be getting through, which can lead to packet loss. Losing or dropping packets on a network occurs for a variety of reasons. Packet loss is determined by the number of packets lost for every 100 packets sent. Endpoints and applications work to manage transmission delays and network congestion. However, there are times when excessive packet loss occurs and the network goes into recovery mode. In Wireshark, we see evidence of packet loss with indicators such as keep-alive, duplicate acknowledgments, and retransmissions.

Wireshark is capable of identifying many common transmission errors and can calculate delays in transmission and interruptions in the data flow by using time values. The following section provides an insight into the significance of time while doing analysis.