TL;DR: Need a URL that can show a very non-technical, near technophobe, whether they have dropped packets.

So me and some non-local relatives chat via Skype. While I was visiting, I swapped out their weak router, reflashed it, and they seem to have a good signal. But, Skype seemed bad. I ran some ping tests and it seemed they were dropping packets from the router (over the PPPoE modem) to their ISP. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to swap out their modem.

Though non-technical, they insist the problem is on my end.

From their point of view, it sort of makes sense. As non-technical folks, they don't do ping, and they don't see ping drops. They mostly do either normal webpages (where a dropped packet or two doesn't make much difference) or videos with a lot of buffering, again, where you don't see the drops. Only on Skype where you have the real-time-ish requirements do you see the issue, and it takes two to tango, so easier to make us "fix" our side then theirs.

So, local Skype call? Did the NSA make all Skype calls go over the Internet rather than local LAN? If so, then Skype would go through the ISP and would be a good test. If not, I probably get just one shot at this before confusing them, and I'd rather not use up my bullet that way.

Is there a streaming protocol that doesn't buffer much? Maybe a live TV broadcast, which has both heavy bandwidth and real-time technical requirements? They have VLC, though I'd have to hold their hand with any real technical "Open Network Stream" work.

TL;DR: Need a URL that can show a very non-technical, near technophobe, whether they have dropped packets.

So me and some non-local relatives chat via Skype. While I was visiting, I swapped out their weak router, reflashed it, and they seem to have a good signal. But, Skype seemed bad. I ran some ping tests and it seemed they were dropping packets from the router (over the PPPoE modem) to their ISP. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to swap out their modem.

Though non-technical, they insist the problem is on my end.

From their point of view, it sort of makes sense. As non-technical folks, they don't do ping, and they don't see ping drops. They mostly do either normal webpages (where a dropped packet or two doesn't make much difference) or videos with a lot of buffering, again, where you don't see the drops. Only on Skype where you have the real-time-ish requirements do you see the issue, and it takes two to tango, so easier to make us "fix" our side then theirs.

So, local Skype call? Did the NSA make all Skype calls go over the Internet rather than local LAN? If so, then Skype would go through the ISP and would be a good test. If not, I probably get just one shot at this before confusing them, and I'd rather not use up my bullet that way.

Is there a streaming protocol that doesn't buffer much? Maybe a live TV broadcast, which has both heavy bandwidth and real-time technical requirements? They have VLC, though I'd have to hold their hand with any real technical "Open Network Stream" work.

Mind you, I know various ways to get to a command prompt (they have both Windows and Mac computers, plus random iOS devices) but seeing a bunch of "cryptic" ping replies probably won't convince them much. It needs to be something less geeky.