[richbhanover]

Latency is a measure of how long it takes a packet to go from your computer to some other computer and back. People usually measure this by a ping test

Unloaded latency (when there isn't much traffic on your connection through your link to the ISP) generally ranges from 5 msec to 50 msec, depending on what kind of connection you have (fiber, cable, dsl, cellular).

Loaded latency is measured when there is traffic on the link. A good router will minimize the additional latency, but many routers will add a lot - between two and five seconds (2000 to 5000 msec). That's why you lag out in games.

In addition to the new Fast.com test, there are good tools for measuring loaded latency listed on the Bufferbloat page: https://www.bufferbloat.net/projects/bloat/wiki/Tests_for_Bu...