02 Jul 2008 at 15:02 - 3
Most of the time this has to do with glitches in the internet, not GW. If you and your friend live near each other, you probably go through the same "routing" to get to GW, so when some brief hiccup happens anywhere along the way, it affects you both.
Keep in mind that your computer is not plugged directly into the GW server. There are a lot of routers and pathways in between.