I have no idea what this problem could be so I'll just have to describe it and hope some of you guys will recognize something. I've had my sites with a major California host for over 2 years. I live in Spain. Right from the start I started noticing slowdowns and access problems during the afternoon (my time). It started getting more regular and now it's every day like clockwork at 4pm (7am in California). I suddenly can't get into my control panel, can't open my site and can't access email. Sometimes it slows to a crawl, sometimes it's impossible. For a long time I thought it was my local connection getting overloaded. That's because I checked with support and they told me "your site opens fine here". But now I'm getting reports from visitors that they can't access the site either. I've asked my host if they're doing some kind of regular maintenance or if there's any other problem and they say no. What gives? Can anybody offer an explanation for this? I mean it happens every day and if it turns out my host is at fault I'm switching immediately! Thanks for any ideas.
Try this as it may be a network issue that they do not realize but is affecting the connectivity in different areas. It may be best to try it now, and also when the issues happen so that you have a comparison. http://host-tracker.com
If it's a significant as a carrier problem, check out www.internetpulse.net at the times of the issues. They could be running "nightly" backups at that time, making the server unusable. If you can get the server load the at the time of the problems (or set a cron to do so), it may tell you more. If you have SSH, just type: uptime Code (markup): Jay
It sounds like a backup process running, though 7am would seem to be a little late if you ask me (7am would be 10am on the east coast). Ask your host what time the backup process runs and when it normally completes. Be sure to get a timezone so you can make an accurate conversion. Otherwise, try running a traceroute to your domain name during this time: In Windows XP (not sure about Vista) do: Click on Start -> Run -> Type cmd then in the DOS prompt box type: tracert yourdomain.com or if that doesn't work tracert your.ip.add.ress If the issue turns out to be backup related, have you considered hosting your account at a Europe datacenter? If most of your visitors to your website are European, then it may be worth it to use a European based hosting company since they would likely run backups during their night-time hours, which would also be the night-time hours for most of your visitors, when your website is less active.