I’m guessing this will be old hat to most of you, but have any of you guys set up static IPs from your router and then done all the correct port forwarding to the application/game? It was a little time consuming but it’s not difficult and it sorted my CS:S and Steam problems out (but NZ internet is stoneage in comparison to the uk).
Also, getting your ISP to turn off ‘interleaving’ (which I think is some bullshi7 error checking that just adds latency) makes a massive difference. NZ Telecom pretty much tell you to f**k off when you ask but other ISP’s will gladly turn it off and it instantly took 40 – 60ms off my TF2 ping. Decent routers can report if it’s set to on or off for your connection if you want to check. Off FTW!
step by step here —-> http://www.portforward.com
Like you say though, I doubt the server issues are all ISP ones.