Hi tones.ie,
Thanks for using the PingPlotter forums!
After taking a look at the data you attached (thank you for that by the way!), there are definitely some patterns (with latency spikes and packet loss) occurring at hop #1 that are carrying through to the final target. This would make for a strong case that the culprit in these issues could be somewhere between your computer and hop #1.
What is the device that's at hop #1? Also, is this a wired connection? Usually anything that is wired inside of a user's network is going to return a response of 1ms or less, but it looks like the average here (per the data file again) never gets less than 4ms (which *may* be a bit of a red flag, depending on your setup...).
The goal at this point should be to isolate and eliminate any variables (that you have control over) to see if you can definitively narrow down what the source of the problem is here. What seems to work the best (in our opinion) is to start at your computer and work out. Start with eliminating the issue lying within your computer. Try tracing from another machine to see if you still see the same behavior as this machine does. If you don't, you know the issue has to do something with your computer. If you did still see the same behavior, move on to the next thing in line (which would either be your ethernet cable or wireless signal). Try replacing your ethernet cable with a new one you know works - and then start the trace again. The last thing in line would be your modem and/or router. This is where you may need to get your ISP involved. If you have the ability, you can try replacing your modem and/or router and then start a trace once again to see if the behavior persists. If this didn't resolve the issue - move on to the next thing in line on your network. If you are interested, we've got a guide that goes over a few different strategies on this front, which you can find here:
http://www.pingplotter.com/netnirvana/Hopefully this helps out! If you should find yourself with any questions, or needing any further guidance - don't hesitate to let us know. You can email us at any time at support@pingplotter.com.
Cheers!
-Phillip