I see a number of different issues in this thread, while most seem to think it is the same problem.
If your frame rate is dropping to the 10's, then your computer resources are just being overwhelmed. Titanic Tuesday requires more resources due to the number of people online in one place.
Another thing to keep in mind, and I have stated this many times. At any given time, there IS something wrong somewhere on the Internet. Eventually you will be a victim of it.
There are many programs that will interfere with the game. Anti-virus or any security style program has the ability to really mess with the game. Spybot, for example, is one of the worst. I can assure you problems will happen with the game if you use the latest version of Spybot.
Our game servers are sitting on dual OC-48's (48 DS3's, one DS3 equals 45Mb/s). This matters very little as connection issues are usually not the last mile (i.e. the actual connection to the Internet). Last mile connection issues are normally far more problematic and in our case, would effect everyone equally, without fail. So, if one person can say they have a great connection, then our last mile is good to go.
The game servers themselves have never exceeded 5% of their potential capacity. Normally they run less than 2% usage and average about 3% usage.
Everyone has access to the tools they need to determine where any given performance issue may lie.
First place to look is the in-game 'Variance' chart in the 'Net Status'. It is your best indicator of how well your computer is responding to the game requests. If it is nice and flat, then your computer is handling the game well. If it is bouncing around, then your computer CPU is being pulled away from running the game. As to why that would happen, it could be a hundred things. Typically it is local programs running in the background, but it could also be your Internet connection being overwhelmed with connection attempts from external sources. This gets particularly bad when you have a software firewall and are logging everything. If your computer is running out of resources, the variance could bounce all over the place due to excess hard disk activity.
If the 'Variance' is flat, but you are still having connection issues, then it is time to start looking to the Internet for the reason. Ping Plotter is a good tool to use, but tracert works OK too. Just run it to the game server IP address and see if there is any packet loss or timeouts along the way. Problems can show up anywhere along the way. If the problems appear at the last or next to the last hop, then I need to run the trace back to you as problems showing up at the last or next to the last hop indicate potential problems on the return trip to your computer. The limitation of a Ping Plot or a tracert being you can only test one direction. All our connections are asynchronous where the data coming back to your computer will take a different route than the one coming from your computer.
If you are getting dropped every hour, on the hour, then that is usually due to a DHCP refresh or a DHCP release being done by your ISP. Check with your ISP to see what DHCP settings they are using. They can change them at any time for any connection or based on a specific group of IP addresses.
