High Latency Issues for online gaming

[Aus_Karlos]

For the past month or 2 ive been having high latency issues with my internet connection.

Any one here know about how the Australian ISP's work here and how routing is done.

These are two tracert logs of two example servers i play on for Team Fortress 2.

This server is located in QLD i think.

 Tracing route to 203.26.94.70 over a maximum of 30 hops

  1     1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.0.1
  2    61 ms    60 ms    60 ms  dslgw-211.31.137.131.optusnet.com.au [211.31.137
.131]
  3    60 ms    60 ms    67 ms  sun4-vl600.gw.optusnet.com.au [211.31.137.2]
  4    59 ms    59 ms    59 ms  119.225.19.1
  5    75 ms    80 ms    76 ms  61.88.243.102
  6     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  7    75 ms    75 ms    75 ms  61.88.221.53
  8    76 ms    76 ms    81 ms  internodesystemspl.optus.net.au [59.154.0.18]
  9    77 ms    74 ms    76 ms  gi1-9.cor1.adl6.internode.on.net [150.101.225.98
]
 10    77 ms    77 ms    75 ms  203.26.94.70

Trace complete.

I get around 70-100ping still. However my brother who lives in the same house but is on a different ISP gets around 40ping to the same server.

And this one in WA

Tracing route to 202.72.191.139 over a maximum of 30 hops

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.0.1
  2    59 ms    60 ms    61 ms  dslgw-211.31.137.131.optusnet.com.au [211.31.137
.131]
  3    59 ms    60 ms    62 ms  sun4-vl600.gw.optusnet.com.au [211.31.137.2]
  4    59 ms    59 ms    58 ms  ge3-3.mn3.optus.net.au [61.88.144.113]
  5    60 ms    60 ms    61 ms  61.88.243.103
  6    60 ms    64 ms    61 ms  61.88.243.103
  7    60 ms    59 ms    61 ms  GigabitEthernet4-5.lon42.Melbourne.telstra.net [
139.130.96.89]
  8    60 ms    60 ms    60 ms  TenGigabitEthernet0-12-0-2.exi-core1.Melbourne.t
elstra.net [203.50.80.1]
  9    75 ms    78 ms    75 ms  POS0-0-0-0.way-core4.Adelaide.telstra.net [203.5
0.6.190]
 10   106 ms   105 ms   105 ms  POS0-0-0-0.pie-core1.Perth.telstra.net [203.50.6
.214]
 11   106 ms   106 ms   106 ms  TenGigabitEthernet7-2.wel28.Perth.telstra.net [2
03.50.115.38]
 12   109 ms   105 ms   105 ms  westne40.lnk.telstra.net [203.45.3.94]
 13   105 ms   108 ms   104 ms  gi0-2.core.op.wa.westnet.com.au [202.72.148.146]

 14     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 15   108 ms   108 ms   106 ms  202.72.191.139

Trace complete.

As you can see my connection is routed to QLD, Adelaide, Melbourne. Also routes to 2-3 different ISPs and then it returns to Perth WA.
It has a ping of 108, but in game its around 130-150.
Also my brother gets about 5ping on these servers.
Why does it do this?
Ive asked the same question to Optus but their Customer Service can't answer anything thats not on the screen infront of them.

Thanks

[johnwill]

I think the issue would be either a routing issue with the ISP. In thinking about it, if you get to the same server as someone else, but take a longer path, that would indicate a routing difference. Perhaps there are some lines down that would support direct connections?

Question: Does your brother connect to the server with the same IP address?

[Aus_Karlos]

No he is on a completely different ISP though they are also based in QLD. I would know if we shared the same IP as it would tell me in the chat menu that another user is piggybacking off of my IP.

[Jason09]

Opening ports can increase speed in online games.
Do you know if there are any ports that need to be open?

[johnwill]

If you have the same IP address (connected to the same public IP address), many game servers won't allow both of you to connect.