Thanks for the reply!

Well, I don't think the problem is with ping plotter at all... If I increase the trace interval from 5 seconds to 60 seconds, not only is the first ping between 300-600 msecs at every hop except the first, but each additional ping is also slow (with bad packet loss, as well). When I had it set to 5 secs, only the first ping was slow.

If I try the same thing with the "ping" command line program, I get these results...

D:\Documents and Settings\Victor.ANAI-2U6J0N9SMT>ping www.attbi.com

Pinging www.attbi.com [63.240.76.8] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 63.240.76.8: bytes=32 time=391ms TTL=51
Reply from 63.240.76.8: bytes=32 time=79ms TTL=51
Reply from 63.240.76.8: bytes=32 time=75ms TTL=51
Reply from 63.240.76.8: bytes=32 time=75ms TTL=51

Ping statistics for 63.240.76.8:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 75ms, Maximum = 391ms, Average = 155ms

[Okay, now I'm waiting only about 5 seconds and entering the command again].

D:\Documents and Settings\Victor.ANAI-2U6J0N9SMT>ping www.attbi.com

Pinging www.attbi.com [63.240.76.8] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 63.240.76.8: bytes=32 time=74ms TTL=51
Reply from 63.240.76.8: bytes=32 time=72ms TTL=51
Reply from 63.240.76.8: bytes=32 time=70ms TTL=51
Reply from 63.240.76.8: bytes=32 time=72ms TTL=51

Ping statistics for 63.240.76.8:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 70ms, Maximum = 74ms, Average = 72ms

[Notice that the above time has improved for the first ping. Now I'll wait a whole minute and retype the command].

D:\Documents and Settings\Victor.ANAI-2U6J0N9SMT>ping www.attbi.com

Pinging www.attbi.com [63.240.76.8] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 63.240.76.8: bytes=32 time=381ms TTL=51
Reply from 63.240.76.8: bytes=32 time=73ms TTL=51
Reply from 63.240.76.8: bytes=32 time=73ms TTL=51
Reply from 63.240.76.8: bytes=32 time=74ms TTL=51

Ping statistics for 63.240.76.8:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 73ms, Maximum = 381ms, Average = 150ms

Latency seems to return after longer delays between pings. Is this a network problem? My cable connection seems significantly slower here than when I lived in Kansas City and had Road Runner. Would you like to see the data from pingplotter? Thanks!!!