I am running a game server with w2k server as the OS. Every so often, everyone gets a high ping spike. Doesn't happen very often, but enough to annoy players. I'm hoping that some service or protocal was running that would cause this. Also is there handy dandy checklist or guide that would help clean out all unnecessary things running.
 
Things I've done so far is go through services and disable any that didn't seem necessary and shut off all protocols except TCP/IP. I also disabled netbios over tcp/ip.
 
For my NIC card, should I keep it set for "Hardware Default" for Media Type, or should I hardwire it to 100 Mbs Full Duplex. Any other things I need to worry about for the configuration of the NIC card?
 
I'm not sure if this problem belongs to my server or the router it is hooked up to. I just want to make sure my box is optimized.
 
Thanks for any help...