What is a dropped packet?

Question

I am looking to hide my IP address from web sites. I have configured my firewall somehow but not sure what it means when it comes up now saying "Dropped Packet". Does this mean it dropped my ip address from showing or what does this exactly mean? Will my emails still be sent and received? Thank you

Answer 1

A dropped packet is a packet that is sent to a host but, the host has rejected the packet. A host will do this if the packet is not intended for a particular host. Broadcast, multicast, or buffer overflow are just some of the reasons why a host my drop a packet.

A router/firewall constantly drops packets outgoing and incoming. Usually a router will drop a packet if a specific port is closed or configured to do so.

A router will not hide your IP address. Your IP address is need for other hosts to return information back to the sender (your router). If you want to hid your ip address, look around google for proxy servers or a type of anonymizer program.

When you connect to a proxy server, your IP address translates over to another IP address and then goes of to the destination. The destination sends it back to the proxy and then back to your router. Most websites will not detect the proxy but, your ISP can and it might be against your ISP's sign up agreements.  

Answer 2

The information transferred on a network is sent in the form of packets.  When a packet is sent from the server to your computer (or the other way around) then the data (or packet) is successfully received. But if the packet is sent and is not received, then it is a 'dropped packet'. So when you're dropping packets, data isn't getting from computer-to-computer successfully. (or it is slower, because the same information has to be sent multiple times)

Answer 3

http://windowsitpro.com/article/articlei...

It means that data is not integral.  Have a read of the link above.