Ping unpredictable at times?

[Master Glink]

I've recently returned to playing altitude after a bit of a break. And now I can't seem to play on most servers for more than a few games. Every time I join a server my ping is well within acceptable ranges, less than 200ms, however after a while of playing I get the Connection Problem message at the bottom of the screen. Even then, I can play just fine, and can't detect any appreciable lag or consequence. But I get kicked from the server moments after, and notice on the server list a high ping returning from most servers.

When possible, if there aren't too many people on Official Server #2, which has no max ping and a rotation through the game modes, I join the server, and can play for as long as I want and there are no noticeable connection issues...

To describe the situation, I usually only have Steam and Firefox, occasionally Tweetdeck, open while playing games on my PC. I run no torrenting clients at present, but I do have a few services that backup and sync data and files (however, they are only active when I'm not actively using the network or when I modify or create new files).

Here's a Link to the Characteristics of my PC if necessary:

http://speccy.piriform.com/results/z...8ThgP44GC6m2RU

[Ribilla]

Are you sure steam isn't downloading? This often happens to me. It seems running alti doesn't stop it from updating TF2 or whatever else.

[Master Glink]

I'm fairly certain it's not Steam. While I can't completely rule it out, the problem occurs every time I play, and I can't see having that many updates in one day.

Another anomaly I've detected is that after I get ping kicked from a server or disconnect, all of the servers on the server list show incredibly high amounts of ping. In the order of thousands. Often the whole list locks at 999, while a few hover above that. Not only that but if I update or refresh the list of servers I get all servers as unresponsive or get no servers at all.

I'm fairly certain it's not my connection either, since this event often drives me to quit for a while and I usually return to browsing the web, which works just fine and I notice little to no difference in speed (granted it's not a game).

I really want to get back to playing for a while, so I hope I can fix this soon...

[lamster]

Which servers are you experiencing these problems on? What city/region of the world are you playing from? It could be a hardware or network issue on the server, or a connection issue between your internet service provider and the server's network.

[Aki1024]

I get the connection issues message as well. I have a /t ping to my ISP on my second monitor and get this issue while my ping remains below 50ms.

[Master Glink]

The servers I most often play on are Official #2 and Official #3. I live in Puerto Rico, so other servers I join are often those based on the East Coast of the US.