Download winmtr and diagnose your connection to the pool's url. I suspect packet loss a one of the hops.
Here's the output, how's it look? :
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| WinMTR statistics |
| Host - % | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | Wrst | Last |
|------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
| domain.name.dlink.com - 0 | 376 | 376 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| No response from host - 100 | 75 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| cpt-up1.ip.adsl.co.za - 2 | 356 | 351 | 2 | 3 | 14 | 3 |
| cpt-up2.ip.adsl.co.za - 0 | 376 | 376 | 2 | 4 | 12 | 6 |
| cpt-net1.ip.adsl.co.za - 0 | 376 | 376 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 2 |
| 41.164.52.40 - 0 | 376 | 376 | 2 | 4 | 28 | 4 |
|ix-ae-7-0.tcore1.KLT-Cape-Town.as6453.net - 0 | 376 | 376 | 2 | 4 | 23 | 5 |
| if-ae-5-2.tcore2.PV9-Lisbon.as6453.net - 0 | 376 | 376 | 151 | 153 | 169 | 154 |
| if-ae-2-2.tcore1.PV9-Lisbon.as6453.net - 0 | 376 | 376 | 151 | 153 | 160 | 155 |
|if-ae-1-3.tcore1.SV8-Highbridge.as6453.net - 0 | 376 | 376 | 154 | 156 | 163 | 155 |
|if-ae-2-2.tcore2.SV8-Highbridge.as6453.net - 0 | 376 | 376 | 145 | 147 | 159 | 149 |
| if-ae-11-2.tcore1.L78-London.as6453.net - 6 | 308 | 291 | 0 | 153 | 241 | 152 |
| if-ae-17-2.tcore1.LDN-London.as6453.net - 0 | 376 | 376 | 150 | 152 | 183 | 151 |
| be3040.ccr21.lon01.atlas.cogentco.com - 0 | 376 | 376 | 145 | 146 | 149 | 146 |
| be100-154.ldn-5-a9.uk.eu - 0 | 376 | 376 | 145 | 147 | 157 | 146 |
| No response from host - 100 | 75 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No response from host - 100 | 75 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No response from host - 100 | 75 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No response from host - 100 | 75 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 91.ip-5-196-5.eu - 0 | 376 | 376 | 148 | 150 | 174 | 152 |
|________________________________________________|______|______|______|______|______|______|
WinMTR v0.92 GPL V2 by Appnor MSP - Fully Managed Hosting & Cloud Provider
I'm assuming 'No response from host' is bad - suggestions?..