Packet loss when flood pinging a Mac

Question

I had some trouble transferring large files between my iMac and my MBP the other day and so started a bit of investigation. Mistake really - here is what I found:
All mac targets are running up-to-date Leopard and use intel processors.
The home network has a linksys wireless router - all devices connected by copper.
flood ping tests with command 'sudo ping -f <target>:
from iMac to MBP shows 30% packet loss
from MBP tp iMac shows 33% packet loss
from iMac to windows laptop 0% packet loss
from iMac to linksys router 0% packet loss
from iMac to Freecom NAS box 0% packet loss
from MBP to windows laptop 0% packet loss
from MBP to linksys router 0% packet loss
from MBP to Freecom NAS box 0% packet loss
I took the macbook to work and picked targets on another site, several busy switch hops away.
from MBP to windows desktop 0% packet loss
from MBP to another iMac 26% packet loss
from MBP to mac mini 28% packet loss
from MBP to linux server 0% packet loss
from linux server to MBP 32% packet loss
The firewall is off on all the targets.
Seem clear enough - Mac machines can't handle high ping loads. It is no good telling me they don't have to. If they can answer a ping at all, they should be able to handle the load. It is a perfectly acceptable way of stress testing the link. File transfers are generally not an issue but now I want to know...
Why can't the macs handle the ping floods?
Is this indicative of any other weakness in the IP stack?
Pete

Answer 1

I had a suspicion of packet loss on my internet connection but could not be certain it was the ISP at fault. The fact that I had been having trouble transferring large files between my machines led me to look for possible local problems.
Network fault finding should always examine the hardware first so I wanted to see if there was anything about the cabling or the router which might be causing packet loss.
Actually copying data about the network is a pretty poor way to test things because you have several additional layer of complexity that can colour the results.
When I had narrowed down the flood ping packet loss to the macs, I went hunting on the 'net. There were plenty of people who were reporting various kinds of packet loss. Enough of them that I wondered if there was something more to it. Some of them were talking about similar symptoms to mine. The respondents usually answered a question other than the one asked so I thought I would put up some tests and see if there was actually a problem anywhere.
Now I know it is a 'feature' rather than a fault, I can work around it.
Thanks anyway
Pete