Well ... it sounds like your Linksys is at hop 1 (we have one here we test regularly with different bioses, and it reports back as hop 1 when it's hooked up like yours is). This would put your ISP on the other side of hop 2, based on your description / pictures.

I assume that your wireless ISP installed your antenna - they can probably improve the packet loss problems you're seeing by adjusting or tweaking somehow. I'd give them a call and tell them you're seeing slow performance, lots of packet loss, and a bad internet experience.

As for picking a better target, you want to pick one that has a better affinity to a single route. I'd start out by tracing to your ISPs mail server, since this probably inside their complex and doesn't even involve other carriers. If they outsource their mail server, though, it might not be a good choice. If your mail server is outside their network, there's probably *some* service they provide that uses a server inside their own network. Go through your ISPs documentation and try a few. If you can't find one, then try opening up the "Route Changes" area on the left of PingPlotter and just pick a few different servers - maybe a Bellsouth one, and a few other providers, and see if you can find one that doesn't have wildly fluctuating routes.

Your problem, though, is at the hop 1 -> hop 2 link, so finding a good trace target is only useful in that it might make your PingPlotter pictures a bit more clear to your ISP, if you need to send them evidence of your problem. If you can't easily find a more stable (i.e., fewer route changes) server to trace to, just move ahead with trying to get your wireless ISP to help you solve the problem.

- Pete