Where are you located?

Where is the CF server? (actually I'm really curious on this one)

Where is the "other mud" you're talking about's server?

A general rule of thumb is farther distance = slower ping times. Which equates to more of a pain for you.

Like many things in life, unfortunately (or fortunately) this is one of those things you don't always have control over.

My only advice is cut out variables you can. Find a tight low-memory intensive mud client. The simpler the better. ZMud seems pretty snappy. As opposed to a java-based client (like I use!) which tend to be pretty kludgy. Sorry, don't know much about Mudmagic. Google search might help you out finding this.

For kicks, if you're running windows, go to the DOS prompt and type "ping carrionfields.org 9999" and "ping othermud xxx" and compare the times. the lower the number, the faster your connection with said mud is. This should give you a good idea of what your dealing with in terms of general network speeds.

As Aarn suggested, maybe try posting the traceroute to each server and see if anyone knows if that can tell you anything- I sure wouldn't.

I don't want to be spreading misinfo here, I believe also that using local echo "on" for telnet actually will slow you down per the nature of things. But what kind of freak plays a MUD with no local echo?