Probably one of the data transit routes into the server farm was having problems.
Tracert can often locate the problems to a server. If you get ping problems in the future do the following:
Start > Run and type "cmd" (Vista users type cmd in the search box and hit enter)
type the following at the DOS prompt
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tracert 81.19.209.30
(Change the IP to whatever server IP you want)
It will show you the router your connection takes to get to se server, and can show where along the line the problem exists. At the top is your connection to your ISP (or router). High ping Towards the top of the list then its usually your provider's network, towards the bottom then it is often the transit provider from your ISP to the server host(s). At the bottom then it is the server itself (Unless it times out before then).
Here is an example tracert:
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Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.
C:\Documents and Settings\Carl>tracert 81.19.209.30
Tracing route to 81.19.209.30 over a maximum of 30 hops
1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 10.0.0.2
2 30 ms 30 ms 31 ms birch.dsl.enta.net [84.45.242.67]
3 31 ms 30 ms 32 ms vlan4001.global-switch.dsl.enta.net [84.45.242.65]
4 32 ms 32 ms 31 ms gi3-8.telehouse-east.dsl.enta.net [84.45.242.50]
5 30 ms 31 ms 31 ms te5-2.telehouse-east.core.enta.net [62.249.192.121]
6 31 ms 31 ms 32 ms te5-1.telehouse-east2.core.enta.net [87.127.236.98]
7 32 ms 30 ms 31 ms te4-1.telehouse-north.core.enta.net [87.127.236.38]
8 31 ms 33 ms 31 ms 62-249-255-186.no-dns-yet.enta.net [62.249.255.186]
9 31 ms 31 ms 30 ms sov-r1-rtr1.4u.net.uk [217.146.81.254]
10 31 ms 30 ms 31 ms 81.19.209.30
Trace complete.
No 1 above shows my connection from my PC to my router (Internal network) this SHOULD be always be very low ping, if not, reboot router.
No 2 is the router connection to the ISP
Nos 3 - 7 is my ISPs internal network.
8- 9 is the handover between the transit provider (in this case entanet) and 4u's internal network.
10 is the gaming server itself.
The handover point may usually contan some 3rd party transit providers. Some of the most popular used are Level3, Tiscali (eeww) and a few others.
Also your ISP may be worth looking at. A lot of ISPs offer sub standard services (Tiscali, Orange, AOL ect) and these should be avoided at all costs. They often to not invest money in thier internal networks, rather cram as many people onto an overloaded network. This can cause extremely bad pings for everyone, most often in the evenings (though with Tiscali users complain about poor speeds and pinds all the time).
2 useful sites for UK users:
http://www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_ratings.php (Shows user ratings for most popular ISPs, this is not massaged results by commercial comparison sites. If your ISP is below the 7 point score you may want to think of switching.)
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ (Has some useful tools and good broadband support forums)