A packet handling method, comprising: receiving a TCP ACK packet currently sent by a client; searching in a storage device for a TCP packet requested for retransmission by the TCP ACK packet when it is determined that the Acknowledge Number field value in the TCP header of the TCP ACK packet currently sent by the client is equal to that previously sent by the client over the same TCP connection; discarding the TCP ACK packet and transmitting the TCP packet to the client when the TCP packet requested for retransmission is found in the storage device. In comparison to the prior art, where the TCP packet at anytime is directly transmitted by a server to the client via the forwarding device, bandwidth between the server and the forwarding device is saved, thereby network congestion is reduced, and network resource utilization is increased.