Anyway to route around...

[LCADolby]

these packet loss buggers!

ae-0-11.edge3.London2.Level3.net can be 25% loss

mci-level3.washingtondc12.level3.net always 50+%

B100.DLLSTX-LCR-21.verizon-gni.net always 50+%

All month these 3 places have been the cause of such packet loss that it's seriously affecting my ability to play AH.
The ping plot image is disturbingly filled with RED 100% packet loss.
Discoed tonight 5 times in a row.

[FLS]

You can contact your internet service provider but it's unlikely they will be able to do anything. As Skuzzy keeps saying, things will improve as storm damage gets fixed.

[The Fugitive]

The only other option is to change your ISP. Drastic, but they may have a better route.

[Skuzzy]

You have a double whammy to deal with.  Level3 is almost always assured to be dropping packets during U.S. prime time hours, as just a normal part of their oversold operations.

With over a million miles of telecommunications lines down in the Mid to Eastern part of the U.S. is the other problem causing even more overloaded conditions for all ISP's.  This particular aspect of the problem will be corrected, with time.

[SirNuke]

Wouldn't a well chosen vpn go around these  particular hotspots?

[Skuzzy]

I am guessing the first hop is at the ISP's network edge just before the gateway to the U.S. east coast.  Limited routes are available at that point.  If I recall, there are three transatlantic routes, at that point.  Two are land based, the other is satellite based.

His ISP's choice of Level3 for their transport is a bottleneck.  They have limited bandwidth, and oversell the connection by a large margin, but they are cheap.

A VPN is not going to help, in this case.  Once you hit the threshold of the bandwidth limit, everything goes to crap.

[Bizman]

If I have understood correctly, in case the shortest route were totally out of business, the Internet would simply find other routes. In this case it would mean terrible ping times through Asia and the Pacific Ocean, so I guess the Transatlantic routes should be totally ruined before the continental routes were chosen.

[Skuzzy]

Yes, if the transatlantic routes became unavailable, the routers would either use satellite or the Pacific routes to the U.S., depending on which was faster.

[Ack-Ack]

these packet loss buggers!

ae-0-11.edge3.London2.Level3.net can be 25% loss

mci-level3.washingtondc12.level3.net always 50+%

B100.DLLSTX-LCR-21.verizon-gni.net always 50+%

All month these 3 places have been the cause of such packet loss that it's seriously affecting my ability to play AH.
The ping plot image is disturbingly filled with RED 100% packet loss.
Discoed tonight 5 times in a row.

Have you tried using a VPN program like WTFast? 

ack-ack

[LCADolby]

I'll give it a go, thanks ack

[LCADolby]

WTFast reports 131ms, yet I am seeing no change in ping to AcesHigh. 

It's saying it has cut 50ms off the terrible ping I've been having, yet I cannot see it doing that at all.