Why do i lag in online games?

A couple months ago, I was able to play online games without any lag whatsoever. But one day, I started lagging. Now I mean the kind of lag that happens when your internet connection is slow, not graphical lag. My dad's computer has Verizon DSL, but he...

has a router or whatever it's called that lets everyone else get internet through wireless internet receivers. My computer is fine. I have Windows XP.

Before I started lagging, my ping stayed in the 65-75 range, and I could play just fine. But one day, my ping shot up to 85-95, and never went back down. Not only that, but now, for some reason, every 10 seconds or so, my ping will shoot up to 300+ for a second or two, then drop back down to 85-95 again. When this happens, my connection is lost JUST long enough for me to die somehow in the game I'm playing.

I can't think of anything I've changed on my PC that would cause this. I've heard somewhere before that Verizon DSL gets slower over time and that you have to call Verizon to get it back up to speed, but I doubt that's true. So if anyone could help me figure out what's wrong, that would be great, because I might be getting Xbox live for Christmas this year and I'm afraid I'll lag on there too

All DSL is no good, get Cable.

umm, you could try running disk clean up/disk defragmenter, did you download anyother games or any thing? I have DSL and mines worked the same for the past 3 years my ping is always around 80..then again I dont lag with 80 ping, make sure you dont have to many tasks running at the same time.

Thanks jaybertetto. I've been needing to defragment for a while and I have downloaded games since then. So I'll try that.

cherrykizzx, cable isn't available in the area I live (the middle of nowhere). Besides, if someone has DSL, but cable is available to them, it's probably safe to assume that they have DSL because they can't afford cable.

Check some of your files.
My internet used to lag, also.
I did the Disk Clean Up... and downloaded this certain thing that fixes any errors.
Try that. If that doesn't work, call the company and tell them.

maybe someone hacked into your account and it using it now to also download. Try changing your password and see if it improves.