Anyone know anything about ping times?

[toby]

This seems strange ...
I had three simultaneous connections to my server going:

Union Admin: Flash client, Firefox browser, ping time: 124
Browser JS client, Chrome browser: ping time: 126
ping the server from the command line: ping time: 120-125

Now the weird one:
Browser JS client, Firefox browser: ping time: 270.
(slower than some others whose connection spans the Atlantic Ocean!,
while mine is "just" across North America).

Anyone have an explanation for that discrepancy?