Blizzard : Battle.net
What changes have been made to Battle.net since the release of Diablo II? 
Blizzard Entertainment continues to make several enhancements to the Battle.net 
  infrastructure by increasing the number of servers and 
  providing additional bandwidth. 
Beginning June 2000 and continuing through August 2001, 
  we have increased the number of game servers in our Asia gateway to 300, increased 
  the number of servers in the US gateways to 200 and raised the number of servers 
  to 100 in the Europe gateway. 
We have also added two new Asian Realms to our Diablo II world as well as increased 
  the size of all Realms. The Battle.net team is extremely committed to providing 
  our users with the best possible game play experience. In order to provide this 
  experience, we have also expanded the number of personnel dedicated to Battle.net. 
  These changes were put into place in order to make your gaming experience enjoyable 
  while maintaining our dedication to keeping Battle.net a complimentary service. 
Why are players from another country on my Diablo II Realm/Battle.net Server?
Anyone in any country is free to play on whatever Realm 
  or Battle.net Gateway they choose. This is not changing. The Diablo II 
  Realms and Battle.net Gateways are named to give people an idea which one is 
  best to pick based on their location. They are NOT named to suggest ownership 
  of the realms by geographical areas or to suggest who has to play where. Please 
  respect people's right to play on any server they choose. 
Why do you allow people from all over the world to connect to any Diablo II 
  Realm or Battle.net Server?
We want to allow friends from around the world to be able to play together 
  on the same server. To do this, the servers must be open to anyone. We have 
  no intention of restricting access based on location. 
Gateways
Gateways acts as portals through which players get onto 
  Battle.net. The four Gateways that Blizzard maintains are: US West, US East, 
  Asia or Europe. For the best play experience, you should select the Gateways 
  that is closest to your geographic location. 
  You cannot talk to or play games with players on other Gateways. To play together 
  you must select the same Gateway. 
The 19/08/02 :
USERS ONLINE:
  247,156
  CURRENT GAMES:
  99,043