A method and apparatus decode packetized data in the presence of packet erasures using a finite sliding window technique. A decoder receives packets containing uncoded and coded symbols. When a packet with a coded symbol is received, the decoder determines whether a packet sequence number is within a sliding window of w consecutive sequence numbers that are no greater than a decoder sequence number, where the number w is fixed prior to encoding. When this is the case, the decoder decodes the coded symbol into one or more of the w input symbols using the coefficient vector. Decoding may use a forward error correcting (FEC) window within the finite sliding window. Decoding also may use a technique of Gaussian elimination to produce a “shifted” row echelon coefficient matrix.