I've been getting ridiculous lag spikes since the maintenance last week and I've come to the conclusion that it's a routing problem between Cox Communications and Square Enix's servers. This is the only possible explanation after trying two different modems, two different routers, speaking with Cox representatives five separate occasions and having two technicians come and check the lines. I've also been repeatedly assured that Cox Communication isn't throttling the game, because they don't throttle torrents in general so even if it was confusing FFXIV for a P2P client, it wouldn't be an issue.

The only solution I can think of is using a VPN. While I may have a higher ping, the lag spikes should go away since I'd be routing through different servers. My only concern is if SE will ban me for this. I've seen people get banned for a lot of strange reasons including receiving in-game spam. Any SE Representative want to chime in?