Real Frame-Freeze Pipeline
Packet Loss & Jitter Simulator
No browser API lets a page touch real network packets — so this processes your own camera and mic through a genuine frame-freeze and audio-stutter pipeline instead, at settings you control. A different failure mode from the Bandwidth Simulator's compression artifacts: this is what dropped and delayed packets actually look and sound like.
Controls
Click Start, then adjust the sliders to compare degradation levels live.
Compare
Original vs Degraded
Notes
What packet loss and jitter actually look like
Packet lossA frame simply never arrives, so the receiver keeps showing the last one it got — the "frozen for a moment, then jumps" look, reproduced here by literally freezing frames at your chosen rate.
JitterFrames arrive, but at unpredictable intervals rather than a steady beat, forcing playback to buffer or stutter to smooth it out — reproduced here by randomly delaying when each frame updates.
Bitrate starvation (the other simulator)A completely different problem: not missing or late data, but too little data per frame, which looks like blur and blockiness rather than freezing.
Reference
General Packet Loss Guidelines for Calls
| Loss rate | Typical call impact |
|---|---|
| Under 1% | Generally imperceptible on a call. |
| 1% – 3% | Occasional visible freezes, usually tolerable. |
| Over 5% | Frequent freezing, often frustrating to use. |
General networking reference, not something this specific simulator measures on your real connection — it demonstrates the visual/audio result of whatever loss rate you choose to set on the sliders.
Step-by-Step
How to Use This Tool
- Click "Start" and allow camera and microphone access when prompted.
- Drag the Packet Loss slider to see frame-freeze artifacts appear at your chosen rate.
- Drag the Jitter slider to add unpredictable timing delays on top of, or instead of, loss.
- Compare side by side with the original feed to build an intuitive sense of what each specific degradation looks like.
Fixing Real Packet Loss
If You're Actually Experiencing This
Switch to a wired connectionWi-Fi is far more prone to real packet loss than Ethernet, especially with interference or distance from the router.
Close bandwidth-heavy background appsLarge downloads, cloud sync, and other devices on the same network all compete for the same limited capacity.
Move closer to your routerWi-Fi signal strength drops sharply with distance and walls, directly increasing real packet loss.
Restart your routerA simple but genuinely effective fix for a router that has accumulated a degraded connection state over time.
Common Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this actually drop network packets?
No — no public browser API lets a web page manipulate real network packets, so no honest tool can do that from a page. This processes your own camera and mic through a real frame-freeze and audio-stutter pipeline instead, which produces the same visible and audible artifacts real packet loss causes.
How is this different from the Bandwidth Simulator?
The Bandwidth Simulator re-encodes your feed at a lower bitrate through your browser's real codec, showing compression artifacts — blockiness and blur. This shows a completely different failure mode: frozen frames and audio stutter, which is what packet loss and jitter specifically look and sound like, not what a starved bitrate looks like.
What is jitter?
Inconsistent arrival timing between packets — even without any loss, if packets show up at unpredictable intervals, playback has to buffer or stutter to compensate. The jitter slider here randomly delays frame updates to demonstrate that specific effect.
Can this tell me my real packet loss rate?
No — it has no access to your actual network conditions at all. For a real measurement, a dedicated network diagnostic tool or your router's own statistics page is what you need; this tool exists purely to show what a given loss or jitter rate looks and sounds like once you know it.
Why does my audio stutter but video look fine, or vice versa?
Audio and video are typically sent as separate streams, so real network conditions can affect them differently at any given moment — this is a genuine, common real-world pattern, not a flaw in either the simulator or your actual connection.