My son noticed this first. By going through the gateway and not through his own modem his access to the Internet Quake server ping was smaller. You can access you home system from anywhere as well as provide services to your friends and family. Every time you connect to your ISP you get a new IP number. Dedicated IP numbers cost money.
Dedicated accounts cost extra money.
Often more then double. So you ISP hangs up on you every so often. You can call and complain and maybe make your ISP aware you are going to abuse his service. Or, you can do something about it. Some ISPs hanging up on you because you haven't generated any traffic.