A method of providing adaptive streaming within a packet communication network, comprising the steps of: streaming multimedia data contained in packets from a streaming server to a client terminal using a first bitrate over said packet communication network; and probing said packet communication network to determine whether a higher bitrate can be handled by said packet communication network, said step of probing comprises the steps of: streaming dummy data from a streaming server to a client terminal using a second bitrate inside the packet media streams over said packet communication network wherein said second bitrate is higher than said first bitrate and wherein a Real-time Transport Protocol RTP packet is stuffed partially with the dummy data allowing the streaming server to transmit actual multimedia data at the first bitrate while increasing the bitrate to the second bitrate by padding the packet partially with the dummy data; transmitting the RTP packet with said multi-media data padded with the extra dummy data on RTP layer and using a RTP padding mechanism; determining that said packet communication network is capable of handling said second bitrate; and in response to an affirmative determination, streaming said multimedia data from said streaming server to said client terminal using said second bitrate; otherwise, reverting to streaming said multimedia data from said streaming server to said client terminal using said first bitrate. streaming multimedia data contained in packets from a streaming server to a client terminal using a first bitrate over said packet communication network; and probing said packet communication network to determine whether a higher bitrate can be handled by said packet communication network, said step of probing comprises the steps of: streaming dummy data from a streaming server to a client terminal using a second bitrate inside the packet media streams over said packet communication network wherein said second bitrate is higher than said first bitrate and wherein a Real-time Transport Protocol RTP packet is stuffed partially with the dummy data allowing the streaming server to transmit actual multimedia data at the first bitrate while increasing the bitrate to the second bitrate by padding the packet partially with the dummy data; transmitting the RTP packet with said multi-media data padded with the extra dummy data on RTP layer and using a RTP padding mechanism; determining that said packet communication network is capable of handling said second bitrate; and in response to an affirmative determination, streaming said multimedia data from said streaming server to said client terminal using said second bitrate; otherwise, reverting to streaming said multimedia data from said streaming server to said client terminal using said first bitrate. streaming dummy data from a streaming server to a client terminal using a second bitrate inside the packet media streams over said packet communication network wherein said second bitrate is higher than said first bitrate and wherein a Real-time Transport Protocol RTP packet is stuffed partially with the dummy data allowing the streaming server to transmit actual multimedia data at the first bitrate while increasing the bitrate to the second bitrate by padding the packet partially with the dummy data; transmitting the RTP packet with said multi-media data padded with the extra dummy data on RTP layer and using a RTP padding mechanism; determining that said packet communication network is capable of handling said second bitrate; and in response to an affirmative determination, streaming said multimedia data from said streaming server to said client terminal using said second bitrate; otherwise, reverting to streaming said multimedia data from said streaming server to said client terminal using said first bitrate.