Wow. Ping times of 922 ms.

[Yankee67]

My ping rates are jumping between 35 and 922 ms, at every single hop.  It'll go smooth in the 60 range for a few minutes, then jump into the 800-900 range.  No packet loss, other than the second to last hop.

[Skuzzy]

If the latency changes at every hop, then it usually means something is running on your computer causing it.  iTunes (and its associated programs), Intuit products (TurboTax, Quicken, ...) Microsoft updater, some anti-xxxx software, virus, malware, BitTorrent (BitTorrent, some games install it as well) or spyware are all candidates.  Could be others as well.

Open the Windows Tack Manager, select the "Performance" tab and check the core activity when the latency spike hits.  Also check the "Networking tab for spikes indicating traffic to/from other sources than what you are using.

[Yankee67]

It's definitely on my end of the rope.  For future reference, here's what happened and where I'm at:

All of a sudden yesterday 5/29 I started getting bumped off with host issues.  Very sudden, no prior problems.  I can barely make it into the air, and then wham, I get bumped off with an error.
Ran a ping test, and it jumps from 17 to the 900's every 5-15 seconds, then falls back.  It starts on my end, because I can see the wave progress down the hop list.
Shut off Norton, no affect.
Shut off all other programs, no effect.
Ran MWB, no problems.
Tried to run ping test with Task Manager/Performance (or Processes) open, to see if I could catch anything, but nothing jumped out at me.
It rained all week here, and we even lost power Sunday.  We have buried lines and FIOS, and it is not unusual for us to lose power when the ground is really saturated and it's raining.
I also have a wonky cable in the next room, which may be a factor.
Verizon also sent me a new wireless router after the last bout with internet access issues, and I haven't replaced it yet because the problem went away on its own.

For now, I'm going to replace the cables and the router, and cross my fingers about the wet weather.

Also, I'd love to know what happens in the arena when I get bumped off.  Does my aircraft disappear?

[Skuzzy]

Your plane stays visible for 5 minutes, waiting for you to reconnect.  During that period of time it can be killed resulting in something other than a disco in your stats.