EK> From: Ellen K. 

 EK> This is our company network.   Is there a standard acceptable percentage
 EK> of lost packets for a company network?

yes, IM(H)O, 0% is the only acceptable percentage unless the network is
extremely busy... even then, with proper routers and switches (no hubs!),
there should not be any losses... possibly only delays of a few ms...

 EK> How many packets have to get lost before data
 EK> problems happen?

if the apps are checksumming their data transfers, then there shouldn't be
any data loss... only delays in getting the data as the lost or corrupted
stuff is rerequested and sent again (and again and again if necessary)
until it all arrives safely and intact...

 EK>   How many packets have to get lost
 EK> for anything to be perceivable by users?

that would depend on the application... streaming video and audio regularly
drop delayed or lost packets... however, transferring files cannot have any
lost packets... i've seen browser's progress bars hang and then jump way
forward as a lost packet finally arrived and was inserted in sequence and
then the rest that was already received was plopped in place and the
transfer stuff continued right on... if that delayed or lost packet hadn't
arrived, the transfer would have been aborted after enough time passed to
kick the timeout period and drop the transaction...

)\/(ark