To the Devs:
Zoom, wasn't there a tool added in-game where players could run a trace route and automatically save/send the data?
This would be useful as it's been stated that running your own traces/pings never reflects the same 'lag' you see in game.
If there is a way to do this could you please document a nice way for players to do it? It might be that you'll get more consistant reports and every time someone gets some bad lag they can quickly type in a few game commands and have a nice trace log output that they can paste in the forums.
To the players:
It is important that everyone also understands how connections work and that there are many type of 'lag'.
1) If the destination servers processing capabilities are strained then there will be a delay between the responses to each packet. This can also result in packet loss if the 'time to live' of a packet is reached before it is processed.
2) If any server between yourself and the destination is struggling to deal with a large load of packets at any given time this can result in a dropped packet or longer than normal delays.
3) If your connection between your computer and your ISPs network is not configured correctly or there are issues at your local exchange this can result in a very small amount of players (So, just you) being effected by terrible connection issues.
4) Corruptions in data transmission/retransmission somewhere between your computer and the destination machine. Because science is crazy and could result in weird things happening to signals.
Now only the first point can be monitor and controlled by the destination server owners. It's very easy to go "I can't connect to your game, fix it as it must be your fault" because this is very often not the case.
Troubleshooting for players:
Pinging an IP address will quickly tell you the overall performance of your connection. Tracing the route of a packet will tell you each machine that the packet visits and the time it takes to then reach the next location.
When looking at the results of a trace route you need to keep an eye out for any large spikes or if the connection is generally quite bad you'll see a high response time from the first exchange. Under 100ms is very good for any communication. For things like FPS games or games that require fast reactions anything above 100ms will be noticeable if the system is not developed in a way to deal with this.
For example a wired internet connection (Wired directly from your machine to the socket on the wall) will be around a 0 to 1ms travel time. A wireless connection is often around 5ms+. If you're seeing values higher than 20ms before you even reach the first 'hop' there is likely something wrong with your connection or you're very unfortunate.
Most routers will be addressed as per their owner E.g. xxxx.yyyy.adatpark.hu helps indicate the owner of the server. If your getting a high value or a spiking value from a router owners by your ISP you can often contact them to report this however most ISP will monitor these machines. (You can sometimes get money off your bill for being provided a poor service if you're lucky so it's worth reporting if there really is a problem)
The main issue is unless the packet loss or high response times are at the destination or source machines there is nothing yourselves or the destination machine owners can do.
Annoying but, sadly, true.
TL;DR Lags sucks and most of the time you can't do anything about it so instead of whining and complaining try and find where the fault is and then do the best you can do resolve the issue by contracting the right people. It's better than complaining at other people who also can't do anything to resolve it.