So could this be the reason for LAG

Decided to do a little snooping into how many hops it takes from my computer at home in the Midlands which is in the centre of the UK, to the GTB server.

Well the result was a bit of a surprise.

0 was to Ashburn VA in the USA
1 was London in the UK
2 was Pheonix AZ back over to the USA
3 was back to London
4 was to somewhere else in London
5 was to somewhere else in London
6 was to somewhere else in London
7 was to somewhere in the UK
8 was at last to the server

Now with a 25ms delay from 0 to 1 which goes up to 50ms that`s all the difference in a kill or getting killed.

Very Strange, how did you find that out ?

Doesn't seem any point in paying for a London server.

Although US Servers do seem to have a much higher ping from here.

http://myspeed.visualware.com/servers/namerica/iad.php?testtype=-3&codebase=mcs.lushsoft.com&message=Speed%20connection%20test%20helps%20to%20pre%20qualify%20customers&location=UK:%20Maidenhead&ver=9&map=uk&pps=50&bpp=160&codec=G.711&provtext=Lushsoft&provlink=http://www.lushsoft.com/

Then enter the IP address

or an easier one to use is -

http://network-tools.com/default.asp?prog=trace&host=217.163.25.17

It some times gets worse with even more hops and sometimes better with less hops.

TraceRoute to 217.163.25.17

Hop (ms) (ms) (ms) IP Address Host name
1 0 0 0 206.123.64.46 -
2 0 0 0 8.9.232.73 xe-5-3-0.edge3.dallas1.level3.net
3 0 0 0 4.69.145.126 vlan70.csw2.dallas1.level3.net
4 0 0 0 4.69.151.146 ae-73-73.ebr3.dallas1.level3.net
5 34 20 20 4.69.134.22 ae-7-7.ebr3.atlanta2.level3.net
6 20 21 20 4.69.148.242 ae-63-63.ebr1.atlanta2.level3.net
7 32 32 32 4.69.148.106 ae-6-6.ebr1.washington12.level3.net
8 32 32 32 4.69.143.214 ae-1-100.ebr2.washington12.level3.net
9 37 37 37 4.69.148.49 -
10 106 106 106 4.69.137.69 ae-42-42.ebr2.london1.level3.net
11 111 106 106 4.69.153.134 ae-57-222.csw2.london1.level3.net
12 106 106 106 4.69.139.106 ae-2-52.edge4.london1.level3.net
13 114 107 107 195.50.122.154 -
14 106 106 106 217.163.25.17 -
Trace complete

Just bugs me that we have to go to the USA when we are in the UK and want to connect to a UK server.

i guess that will depend on your ISP since maybe they are buying some cheap ones "internet" from US and it has to go through their servers before it can be used elsewhere, might be wrong but thats just my though