File: inetutils.info,  Node: Duplicate and damaged packets,  Next: Data patterns,  Prev: Fault isolation,  Up: ping invocation

7.3 Duplicate and damaged packets
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Ping will report duplicate and damaged packets.  Duplicate packets
should never occur, and seem to be caused by inappropriate link-level
retransmissions.  Duplicates may occur in many situations and are rarely
(if ever) a good sign, although the presence of low levels of duplicates
may not always be cause for alarm.

   Damaged packets are obviously serious cause for alarm and often
indicate broken hardware somewhere in the ping packet's path (in the
network or in the hosts).