of packets being received across a communications network the packet comprising a selected number of data samples ones of the data samples from the selected packet are played out in a sequence as comfort noise to fill a dead gap the sequence is reversed when a randomly selected sample in the packet is reached and corresponding ones of the data samples are transmitted across the network as comfort noise after the order is reversed application_number US 25546005 A description the principles of the present invention and their advantages are best understood by referring to the illustrated embodiment depicted in fig1 u2013 6 of the drawings in which like numbers designate like parts fig1 is a diagram of a portion of an exemplary computer network suitable for describing the present inventive concepts here a pair of end user terminals 101 a b are represented as personal computers pcs although these terminals in actual practice can be any one of a number of network appliances supporting computer network telephony terminals 101 each include a speaker or headset 102 and a microphone 103 a modem or similar interface 104 provides a connection to a computer network 105 such as the internet or world wide web in a conventional manner a functional block diagram of conventional echo suppression circuitry which includes a switch 201 and control logic 202 is shown in fig2 while a speaker is using the microphone switch 201 is set to the low impedance 0 db state to allow local speech to be transmitted while.