Hop 8 seemed to be the main culprit, however other hops occasionally lost packets and the pings exceeded 300 at times all over. At one time I had packet loss on every hop except #1. I wish I had the option to switch to ATT but all they offer in the area is 1.5/256. No Uverse out this way. I really don't know what else to try or do. Thanks for the help though!