Frisky is partially right, it does help being close to the server, but unless you're not in the US, you shouldn't see a 80 point jump in ping. The other issue is server side or the ISP of the server. And you are right about Ping, it's how many milliseconds it takes a packet to reach the server and then return to the sender. Therefor if your provider or the servers IPS limits its traffic in anyway, you will see a spike in your Ping Rate.
No offense to anything we have going, but I dislike Fios to no end. It's no better, in my area, again MY area, then the DLS they had prior. Needless to say I run a 1.5mb/s connection hard-lined into a Gig network card and get 20-70 ping in all Edge servers, DoD:S/TF2/INS, except in the Fios servers where I run 80 on a good day to 160ish.
Back to the point it comes down to three things. Location, server hardware and server ISP, and location is not really an issue in the US unless it's Miami to Seattle. Even then you're looking at maybe 10-15 extra milliseconds.
Anyone correct me if I'm wrong, but that is all based on the servers and players in a Clan I used to run. (The servers were in-house, converted towers I have floating around still.)
I get long winded, I'll shut up for now.
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