Great Western Coffee Shop

PLEASE. Can this problem be sorted, perhaps with some better hosting or something. I've just had a try and post a post 4 times, each time I tried to post it, it told me the server was down. Every five or so refreshes and it kicks me out! Is it a tempory problem, or should someone be trying to find a 'big fix'
Do you get the feeling I am pretty fed up?

And no, I am not throwing a teenager paddy!

Answers on a postcard!

I have added a poll to see how much of a problem it is for individual users.

The original text of this post is unmodified (above). I just wanted to add, near the top of this thread, that the server issue was resolved a few days after this thread was posted.  At the  time of this thread starting, we were investigating so could not give a firm fix time nor analysis, and we appreciate that was frustrating for our users.  But there should be no issue into the future. Further details:
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=2870.0
-- Graham

I hear from somewhere that a member of the forum was offering hosting, but it was turned down.....The hosting in question has survivedfor around 50weeks with no outages!

Can you let me know where you heard that, Jim?   I think you may just have just a part of a story.

As things stand, this forum is running as a free service which I'm mainly administering in my increasingly rare "spare" time.  I've resisted the temptation to suggest that some sort of subscription might be in order - it's amazing what can be bought - as I've always felt that's what people want. But seeing the reactions to the "free rail travel for pensioners" thread recently, perhaps I'm wrong.

I'm sorry you have found the server even worse this evening. I've been doing some testing, and I'm also aware of a number of probes and tests being run against the server. Whilst it's very interesting for people to do that, just think that it may in itself be a bit of a problem - partly because it starts setting of alarms and filling long files all over the place so making it even harder for me to spot the specific issues I'm hunting for.  It's rather like getting off a train onto the platform at every station on your journey, walking along to the next door and getting back on again.  Perfectly legal, but slows down operations, skews passenger "on" and "off" stats, and irritates the heck out of the staff.

grahame, I think it was actually suggested here: http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=2679.msg20344#msg20344 .

Ah yes ... and another note that came through indirectly and personally added the words "in jest".   Looking back at what's visible here on its own, it could rather look as if the suggestion was brushed off.

Chris has answered my question for me!

Graham - Can i suggest some Google ads which generate profits as it would appear that you are hosting this out of your own pocket entirely.

Its more likely to be isp issues with the hoster grahame, not the box its on itself.

Out of curiosity, who are you hosting with?

(it took me 6 attempts to make this post btw ;) )

I must admit I HAVE noticed but 90% of the time I post it is whilst in transit on a mobile modem or on an iphone (whilst waiting for other stuff) - both of which are slightly dodgy.

I have had a few posts which I have lost, so I ticked "yes."

But I am not criticising. The site is very good, and I am grateful about the time and commitment that goes into keeping it running.

It is inconvenient. The site can be slow, but it is not too much of a problem.

Good idea.