[SOLVED] Random heavy ping spikes for all players

Hi there,

I've successfully set up a NS2 server on my linux machine and on my gaming one (specs below) but I have this annoying issues I can't seem to fix: when the server has around 16 people the ping of everyone but me ('cause I'm in lan/localhost) spikes to 999. The spikes last from a couple of seconds to a full 2 minutes and occur about every other minute. This seem to happen constantly and on both machines.

What I found so far:
- Doesn't seem to affect the tickrate of the server
- I'm immune to the spikes because I'm in lan/localhost
- During the spikes and for all their duration the upload speed jumps from the standard 140-170 KB/s to 360-400 KB/s
- This thread suggests a fresh install -> done multiple times, issue still occurs
- This thread suggests not to use webadmin while people are playing on the server -> done, ping still jumps to 999
- According to several other posts, both my processing power and my upload speed are more than enough to handle 20-24 players

Any idea what's going on?


My Hardware follows

Windows Machine:
i5 3570k @ 4.4 Ghz
8 GB 1600 Mhz RAM
2x SSDs in raid 0
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit

Linux Machine:
AMD Phenom II x6 @ 4.0 Ghz (4 cores, 2 are off)
8 GB 1600 Mhz RAM
SSD
Arch Linux 64bit

Mods installed:
Shine Administration
[Shine] NS2Stats
Badges+

My connection:
FTTC dsl connection