Thanks for sending me your traceroute file. I sent it on to DigiChat, and this is what they got back to me with:
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This client has to make a very large number of connections, or "hops", before reaching the host5 server. I counted over 20 connections between his computer and ours. This is possibly because of his isp, but is most likely a result of his geographical location. Either way, a connection with that many hops is a very slow connection and one with a large number of chances for failure. If there is too much delay or a connection loss at any one of those hops, the user will lose connection to the chat. There really aren't many options for resolution of this matter beyond moving the client or moving the server so that the connection is shorter. Possibly a different isp in his area would have a connection with less hops, but even that probably wouldn't be significant enough to eliminate the problem.
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[This message has been edited by dan at WebFlyer (edited 08-02-2001).]