the inital node ip given by the OP looked to be from Russia (http://ip-address-lookup-v4.com/ip/146.185.173.146), Europe was in a better position than US here.
BAsically took a node close to that IP anc checked the latency (simple ping or traceroute). Your internetconenction from the node really matter (and not the bandwith).

 But the most important consist in leveling upo your maxconnections from the config file and add all nodes taht you can grap in the forum and more than 30 Ips were posted here in this thread.