trall@almaden.ibm.com said:
I'll speculate that it occurs when packets destined for a destination do not get there. Most people see it via dropped ping packets..
What ping really tells you is that either the packets from A to B are being lost or those from B to A are being lost.
Or that B is (perhaps deliberately - filtering ICMP echo or ratelimiting echo response) not responding to the ICMP echo request. This happens in Real Life (tm). (pedantic: - or that A is discarding them as opposed to transmitting them or ignoring the responses on receipt both of which have been known to happen in badly configured NMS situations). -- Alex Bligh VP Core Network, XO Communications - http://www.xo.com/ (formerly Nextlink Inc, Concentric Network Corporation GX Networks, Xara Networks)