BT is blocking specific traffic - Connection probl...

Question

I started having this problem about two weeks ago, after multiple phonecalls to BT and a couple of emails nothing has been done, so hopefully someone on the forum can help.
The problem is the BT server that my hub connects to runs software to block specific traffic, I assume this is handy for restricted torrents or illegal downloads. But what it's blocking is a game called EVE Online, I used to play this game without a single problem until about two weeks ago. I logged in one day and the lag was unbearable, mainly due to the fact BT is blocking around 90% of packets that are sent to me. As I said, I used to be able to play no problem, but now I can't even go on for 2 minutes before I get kicked.
I've confirmed with the EVE support team that BT is causing the problem, EVE uses UDP and it only requires a packet loss of 5 consecutive packets before the game disconnects you. This may not seem like a lot, but due to the nature of it, any more than 5 packets can cause major problems in the game, so they just disconnect you. A friend of mine also had this problem, but to a lesser extent, but it did span accross multiple games, he has since then switched to another broadband provider which I will not name, and hasn't had the issue since. In EVE, recently BT have been known to block traffic, I'm not the first to ask EVE support for assistance on the matter, so they weren't strangers to the problem.
I've ran a program called Ping Plotter to the EVE server, for those of you unaware Ping Plotter is a useful tool to (as the name suggests) Plot the latency (ping) of your connection to the server. PP also records packet loss and the exact route the client is using to connect to the server. The results average about 90% packet loss, Below are the results of PP.
500 trace count, 1 second per trace.
Packet loss is highlighted in RED
BT IP's are highlighted in BLUE
EVE IP's are highlighted in GREEN
Target Name: srv200-g.ccp.cc
IP: 87.237.38.200
Date/Time: 21/01/2014 2:41:46 AM to 21/01/2014 2:50:12 AM
Hop Sent Error    PL%  Min Max Avg  Host Name / [IP]
 1   500      0      0.0      1   34    2  BThomehub.home [192.168.1.254]  PC TO HUB 
 2   500    423    84.6    9   57   21  esr19.edinburgh8.broadband.bt.net [213.1.130.142] HUB TO BT
 3   500    474    94.8   10  149  26  [213.1.130.125]
 4   500    480    96.0   18   66   29  [213.1.69.74]
 5   500    481    96.2   19   63   31  [31.55.165.77]
 6   500    476    95.2   19   71   35  [31.55.165.107]
 7    14     11     78.6    18   53   29  acc1-10GigE-4-1-3.mr.21cn-ipp.bt.net [109.159.250.114]
 8   133    126    94.7   29   62   47  core2-te0-13-0-14.ilford.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.250.46]
 9   262    238    90.8   27   69   47  peer3-te0-1-0-7.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.254.251]
10  500    443    88.6   25    74   40  ccpgames.com [195.66.226.23]
11  500    465    93.0   25    69   42  te-d2-e2.ccp.cc [87.237.37.246]
12  500    422    84.4   25    77   38  srv200-g.ccp.cc [87.237.38.200]
As you can see, that is completely unacceptable. The connection between my PC to my HUB is perfect, from the HUB to BT is where things go pearshaped.
Onto another note, the three times I've phoned, I've spoken to someone reading from a card. What I mean by that is they haven't got a clue what they're speaking about. They are denying there is a problem because 'ping google' works fine. the first time I was redirected to the tech support, but then found out I wasn't paying for the service so I couldn't use it. The second time the advisor hung up on me when I requested to speak to her supervisor, and the third I hung up because the advisor claimed BT broadband isn't designed to support online gaming, and he said a 90% packet loss is to be expected when online gaming, alright then.
Any help whatsoever on this issue is greatly appreciated, If I've missed anything out just ask for it and i'll post it
Thanks.

Answer 1

What home hub model do you have and have you tried rebooting it? Lots of UDP traffic can be difficult for some routers to handle due to inbuilt firewall, an older router or possibly a router thats starting to have problems might cause issues(Dust blocking airflow slowing the processor down) like this due to load on the processor of the router(These things normally have very slow processors). Have you tried running extended ping tests ? I'd try ping -n 1000 www.google.co.uk and ping -n 1000 www.bbc.co.uk additionally try using ping -l 750 -n 1000 www.google.co.uk and ping -l 750 -n 1000 www.bbc.co.uk , What package are you on are you sure you're not on a package with traffic shaping? If the devices BT use to shape traffic dont understand what eve is it might assume its P2P related and throttle it? A glasnost test should help there. But the package you are on should be Totally unlimited rather than just unlimited and was introduced from sometime around Feb last year I believe. If you are on an older contract you are probably being traffic shaped. Additionally its best to concentrate on Packet loss to servers rather than to routers. Backbone routers are often setup to depriorize icmp traffic directed to their own addresses except from servers used to manage them, concentrating on packet loss to intermediate devices is often a red herring.
There are various utilities out there that can test a tcp or UDP in a similar sort of way to ping, however the remote servers if they are protected by firewalls and IDP systems might detect that as an anomoly and block it as a possible attack.