I have been playing BF2 for quite a while now and have lately found that the ping spike is getting totally ridiculous.
My PC is pretty much brand new - and I run a series of anti-malware and spyware utilities before I do anything else.
As my clan tend to play at 8pm (a busy time for ntl users by all accounts), I lag sooo much that it is near impossible to be of any use to my clan.
I have contacted the 'customer services' people and I got a email response suggesting I reduce my network card settings to 10Mbit and Half Duplex - Having spoken to a few of the PC buffs in my clan they were adamanet that it SHOULD run best on 100Mbit and FULL-duplex. as that allows the info packets to go both ways at once - the kind of thing that would be handy in online gaming.
I was also told that using P2P programs WHILST playing online would affect my performance (as if I would be stupid enough to do this).
I live in Portsmouth - a very densely populated city and so trying to play before 2am is a total joke.
(I don't use a router, cause I don't need one)
But the ping spike remains at all times of the day and night, its just the spike stays under 200 late at night.
Am now looking at switching ISP cause this lot don't really seem to care that they can't provide a decent service for anyone who uses their pc for anything more than checking their emails.
I have recently found it spiking on other games too. COD2 now sits at around 150, and even CS was running over 100 today.
I have sorted every possible problem at my end - it seems that the service in my area is dive-bombing
Oh well, another unsatisfied customer to be added to the list.
Soz:
service: 2mb although I noticed recently it says 'up to 2mb' pff
PC: AMD Athlon 3500+
2GB RAM
etc
etc