WTH is latency, and why is mine so bad?

[Subjugation]

I rarely had a problem with being specced and lagging, but over the last 2-3 weeks, it's been really bad. I have a broadband connection, and I rarely have probs with my isp.

Can someone give me an idiots explanation as to what latency, lag, and packetloss are, and how they differ from each other?

I thought I knew what they are, but I've never seen a textbook answer written down anywhere. I don't want to assume I know what they are, when it's possible I have no clue WTF I'm talking about.

[Superted]

Don't qoute me on this but;

lag is the delay of information for you to server

packetloss is information lost in transfer either from server to you or from you to the server

latency is packetloss

[Darkmoor]

Not exactly.

Latency = The time it takes for a packet to cross
a network connection, from sender to receiver.

Packetloss = The amount of packets lost on the way.

Lag would be both of these combined.

[Colonel]

who cares

[Mr. Peanuts]

So lag cant be a slow relay between client and server bottlenecked by a slow connection?

[Sufficient]

So lag cant be a slow relay between client and server bottlenecked by a slow connection?

yes