Help!!! Extremely high ping times.

In the last few days my average ping time has been around the 2,000msec mark. Usually it's under 200msec and I can live with that as I don't do much other that building, chat and playing live music. Here's a copy of my traceroute.txt file:

Tracing route to sim400.agni.lindenlab.com [69.25.104.86]over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 * * * Request timed out.
2 23 ms 24 ms 23 ms lo0-plusnet.ptn-ag1.plus.net [195.166.128.123]
3 22 ms 45 ms 26 ms ge1-0-0-104.ptn-gw1.plus.net [84.92.3.25]
4 23 ms 21 ms 32 ms ge-4-1.metro2-londencyh00.London1.Level3.net [212.113.11.41]
5 21 ms 142 ms 22 ms so-1-2-0.gar2.London1.Level3.net [212.113.0.118]
6 32 ms 23 ms 25 ms ae-0-52.bbr2.London1.Level3.net [4.68.116.34]
7 167 ms 184 ms 169 ms as-0-0.mp2.SanFrancisco1.Level3.net [64.159.0.217]
8 168 ms 165 ms 164 ms ge-6-0-0.gar1.SanFrancisco1.Level3.net [4.68.124.206]
9 167 ms 164 ms 169 ms 4.78.242.18
10 188 ms 192 ms 239 ms border1.ge2-1-bbnet2.sfo002.pnap.net [63.251.63.65]
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
29 * * * Request timed out.
30 * * * Request timed out.Trace complete.

FWIW, traceroute hung until I logged out of SL. then it seemed to be OK. I have been having serious connection problems with my ISP recently so mebbe that has something to do with it. Any suggestions?

As a result of my chat with 2 very helpful and patient lindens (michael and another whose name I've already forgotten) we went over the traceroute I did and one from their end and found a step in the line with 28% packet loss. It looked like the point where the transatlantic cable comes into the UK. Here's how the trace went from Linden Labs:

|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| WinMTR statistics |
| Host - % | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | Wrst | Last |
|------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
| eth0.rtr-ll-0.lindenlab.com - 0 | 107 | 107 | 0 | 19 | 62 | 0 |
| ser0.rtr-365main-ds3.lindenlab.com - 0 | 107 | 107 | 0 | 18 | 47 | 0 |
| eth1-0.janus.lindenlab.com - 0 | 107 | 107 | 0 | 7 | 47 | 47 |
| border1.g3-1.linden-4.sfo002.pnap.net - 0 | 107 | 107 | 0 | 12 | 203 | 0 |
| core1.pc-1-bbnet1.sfo002.pnap.net - 0 | 107 | 107 | 0 | 8 | 156 | 0 |
| sl-gw19-sj-10-0-1.sprintlink.net - 0 | 107 | 107 | 0 | 21 | 235 | 0 |
| sl-bb23-sj-4-0.sprintlink.net - 0 | 106 | 106 | 0 | 16 | 203 | 0 |
| sl-bb22-stk-13-0.sprintlink.net - 0 | 106 | 106 | 0 | 23 | 234 | 0 |
| sl-bb21-che-2-0.sprintlink.net - 0 | 106 | 106 | 31 | 44 | 188 | 31 |
| sl-bb20-che-15-0.sprintlink.net - 0 | 106 | 106 | 31 | 43 | 234 | 31 |
| sl-bb24-chi-3-0.sprintlink.net - 0 | 106 | 106 | 62 | 88 | 188 | 94 |
| sl-bb25-nyc-5-0.sprintlink.net - 0 | 106 | 106 | 78 | 106 | 297 | 94 |
| sl-bb24-nyc-10-0.sprintlink.net - 0 | 106 | 106 | 62 | 96 | 281 | 93 |
| sl-gw29-nyc-0-0.sprintlink.net - 0 | 106 | 106 | 78 | 85 | 109 | 94 |
| sl-tisca1-2-0.sprintlink.net - 0 | 106 | 106 | 78 | 87 | 110 | 94 |
| 213.200.80.57 - 28 | 106 | 76 | 156 | 176 | 203 | 172 |
| plusnet-gw.ip.tiscali.net - 0 | 106 | 106 | 140 | 172 | 360 | 187 |
| ge1-0-0-23.ptn-gw1.plus.net - 0 | 106 | 106 | 140 | 163 | 203 | 188 |
| gi12-0-104.ptn-ag1.plus.net - 0 | 106 | 106 | 140 | 165 | 188 | 172 |
| alazarin.plus.com - 0 | 106 | 106 | 157 | 187 | 219 | 219 |
|________________________________________________|______|______|______|______|______|______|
WinMTR - 0.8. Copyleft @2000-2002 Vasile Laurentiu Stanimir ( [email]stanimir@cr.nivis.com[/email] )

As was pointed out to me, the problem ocurrs at 213.200.80.57 I tried accessing this IP address but it came up blank. At least now I know that the problem isn't at either end of the line but somewhere in between. Whether I'll get any joy out of my ISP who've completely washed their paws of any responsibility for line and connection quality remains to be seen.

I'd be interested to know if anyone else in the UK has experienced unusually high ping in the last few days.

Thanks again to Linden Labs for their patience and helpfulness beyond the call of duty.