Hi, Shaun.

We've seen instances in the past where a constant data stream keeps a wireless connection "awake". When you trace less frequently, the wireless connection goes in power and/or bandwidth saving mode.

Normally, though, it's the early hops that get impacted, and later hops work fine. We send out the early hops first, and each packet is separated by a little bit of time, so by the time the packet goes out for your final destination, the connection should be fully "woken up". It's hard to know what logic any device uses for optimization, though, so you could be seeing this as a problem.

Does your Everquest experience more closely approximate the packet loss / latency you're seeing in the early part of the trace or the later part? Does running PingPlotter at a higher rate do anything to your Everquest experience?

What does your trace look like when you're playing Everquest? The constant stream of data necessary for the Everquest client should keep the connection active.

- Pete