I'm rather curious, you ended up with a longer path to s-e-m.com than to Leviathan?

My rather terrible ping from the UK.

Code:
  1   282 ms   284 ms   285 ms  172.16.0.1
  2   284 ms   284 ms   285 ms  93.XXX.XXX.41
  3   285 ms   287 ms   285 ms  router.lon-a12.as39458.net [46.23.69.50]
  4   282 ms   280 ms   283 ms  te0-7-0-12.ccr22.lon01.atlas.cogentco.com [149.11.142.41]
  5   287 ms   287 ms   283 ms  be2317.mpd22.lon13.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.73.177]
  6   284 ms   285 ms   285 ms  be2314.ccr21.lon13.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.72.253]
  7   291 ms   290 ms   291 ms  be2399.ccr21.lpl01.atlas.cogentco.com [130.117.0.5]
  8   360 ms   361 ms   362 ms  be2384.ccr21.ymq02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.44.137]
  9   364 ms   361 ms   360 ms  38.122.42.122
 10   361 ms   363 ms   361 ms  te7-4.dr9.mtl.iweb.com [184.107.1.110]
 11   361 ms   361 ms   361 ms  72.55.128.44
 12   364 ms   364 ms   363 ms  184.107.107.176

  1   283 ms   282 ms   282 ms  172.16.0.1
  2   286 ms   617 ms   283 ms  93.XXX.XXX.41
  3   284 ms   286 ms   284 ms  router.lon-a12.as39458.net [46.23.69.49]
  4   284 ms   285 ms   283 ms  92.60.249.45
  5   299 ms   284 ms   284 ms  ae10-161.lon11.ip4.tinet.net [141.136.102.177]
  6   285 ms   284 ms   285 ms  be3008.ccr21.lon01.atlas.cogentco.com [130.117.15.21]
  7   285 ms   284 ms   287 ms  be2314.ccr21.lon13.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.72.253]
  8   291 ms   293 ms   291 ms  be2285.ccr21.lpl01.atlas.cogentco.com [130.117.49.126]
  9   361 ms   361 ms   363 ms  be2384.ccr21.ymq02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.44.137]
 10   360 ms   360 ms   361 ms  38.122.42.34
 11   361 ms   360 ms   361 ms  192.34.76.10
 12   361 ms   360 ms   361 ms  199.91.189.242
 13   362 ms   361 ms   360 ms  199.91.189.21
Ping times were the same, regardless... about 355-360ms. Going across the pond to San Diego, I'm down to 120-130ms.

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What did those VPN services do for the connection? I understand most of them give a free trial (disconnects every 20 minutes... about enough for a WP speedrun ^-^), so you could try them out to see if they are worth the money.