Some of you may have noticed that the website was down for nearly 4 hours earlier today. I cannot remember the last time the web sites were down for that long!

I apologise for the inconvenience and it was beyond my control. I sent an email to my web host right away but being the "host-from-hell" that they are, they were probably too busy sleeping to react to a support ticket marked critical.

Anyway, that was the last straw and I forced myself to compile the kernel myself, something I have NEVER done before. I am glad to announce that the server is now running the very latest kernel from kernel.org!

As a direct result of that, the memory problem is also now resolved. And server loads are currently (peak time) hovering at around 0.20 and below.

Prior to today and since moving the sites on to this new server, server loads were all over the place, sometimes going up as high 5.0 or more!

Now we have the room to grow....

All that from a kernel compile? Wow. What version was it using before?

BTW, good job on the recompile. It kicked my butt the first three times I tried to do it, but supposedly it's the mark of a true Linux "hacker".

Thank you C. I don't know about being a true Linux "hacker" but I got a LOT of help from my friends!

Mark, for suggesting what I already suspected I needed to do. His digging brought up a lot of useful links. Darrin, for writing THE tutorial that I used a lot today and for spending the last couple of hours "holding my hand" while we loaded iptables which was lost in the process. Not forgetting you guys, who persevered despite all the service interruptions these past few days. Thank you.

No thanks to my useless host!