I've been trying to figure out why the first ping that I send somewhere is always slow the first time, then every subsequent time it is significantly better (the first hop is really fast; it's the first ping that is slow). I found a source that told me that the first ping has to look up the appropriate address in the ARP table of the router, but how long is this supposed to take? My first pings run 300-500 msecs, then subsequent ones are usually under 100, depending on circumstances. Why is this not illustrated in any of the examples I've seen? Do I have an odd setup? Thanks! I'm on a cable modem that I just got set up with AT&T Broadband in Seattle.