Pprune Pop (and Danny, etc)
I have also spent time battling with the internet, and agree that the traffic surge after Sept 11th slowed us down, but I wonder just how much some of the server load is self inflicted.
If you are looking at having to upgrade the server because of either cpu loading or disc/io loading, then I think the culprit may be the actual software you are running.
If you analyse the functions performed by the software that suports this board, it has moved on a long way from being just a simple message exchange. If all it was doing was displaying messages, the a couple of i/os per mesage would do.
But, look at all the extra functions that are no provided, whether you want them or not.
Things like the fancy icons that tell you if there have been posts on the topic since you last visited. Counting the number of posts on a topic. Pulling out all the details of a poster, and counting his (or her) posts.
All this "extra" information costs an arm and a leg to calculate/refresh etc. WOuld be interesting to see some stats if you have them on the number of i/os taken to display a page of posts.
In my opinion the software has got far too fancy, and this will hog the power of the machine, forcing regular upgrades (just like a well known company does with operating systems!)