[PeaceFreak]

I live in Japan and have a 100 MB fiber optic connection. I am having some problems uploading files to my server so I got my hosting company to test things a couple of days ago. The download speed with their in house test was 87 Mbps and the upload 30 Mbps. Sounds OK doesn't it! When uploading large files (a gig or two) to Google Video, YouTube or my friends server, I can achieve speeds of around 329 KB/s so for example, a 2.5 gig file generally takes me a couple of hours.

I have a couple of accounts with a US based hosting company Sites5.com, the same company that the friend that I mentioned above uses. When I try to upload files to either of MY accounts, I get upload speeds of 15 to 20 KB/s, which means a 370 MB file will take a very lovely 6 hours to upload! A bit strange I think, as to my friends account, with the same company, it is 300 KB/s plus...

So I contacted Site5 and got them to troubleshoot. They did all kinds of tests, even uploaded large files from somewhere in Europe to my server in the US etc., and got excellent speed results. They then got me to do a traceroute to the server and there were a big timeout. They claimed that the problem was due to my local provider here in Japan and suggested I get the local lads here to run some tests.

So the guys here did their testing, using traceroutes etc, and they claimed that one server, http://ababe.net that my data is 'passing through' is causing the problem. They then suggested that I contact Site5 as they suspected ababe.com was owned by them. Site5 of course, says that they have nothing to do with the site, and I am still stuck with less than 20 KB/s upload speeds...

To my knowledge, the routes that data is sent through the internet on vary according to the load in any particular area or region of the world, etc., right?

What is going on that ONLY when I upload to MY server, the data speed is slow and the data ALWAYS gets shunted through that server? When I upload to ANYWHERE else, I get good upload speeds.

Can ANYONE shed some light on this, and perhaps give me some ideas on what I can do to fix this? What controls the routing of data through the internet. Who are the networking masters out there that I can contact to help me troubleshoot this. Something is definitely strange. Can someone explain why this would be happening? I have the feeling that my sites are being monitored.

Thanks in advance!