Ordering partial network traffic. In an embodiment, data packets are received from a network tap and separated into two queues. For each queue, a push-sequence is maintained to represent a sequence number that must be pushed in order to maintain a consecutive order. When both push-sequences are equal to the sequence number of their first packets, if the acknowledgement number of the first packet on one queue is greater than the push-sequence for the other queue and less than or equal to the push-sequence of the one queue, data is pushed off the other queue. Otherwise, a queue having the earlier timestamp is identified as a first queue, the existence of a next acknowledgement number is determined for the second (other) queue, and data is pushed off the first queue according to the existence of the next acknowledgement number. Gap packets may be generated to force progress.