How much of this is due to all the ads you have on your pages? Loading all that extra stuff every time someone comes to the page has to take its toll.

It's a bigger than usual load but runs fine most of the time. The problem isn't my site but the combination of sites on the same server. If any site is getting a massive trackback attack or, say, gets linked by Drudge or there's a huge Google surge then it can take down the server.

James, does your server have the same name as Gary Hartpence's birthplace?

Hmmm, yesterday they blamed this on some routing problem... Which seemed a bit strange as I've seen services getting hosed on my host intermittently since last Thursday/Friday.

And, while I know a lot of folks haven't upgraded yet, the latest release of MT is supposed to eliminate the server issues related to comment/trackback attacks.

Doc, what do you use to block out spam? There are solutions that do not use as much server CPU, however, the one I use called WP-Hashcash does not have a safeguard against trackback spam. I know it isn't just you sitting on the server and the problem may not be just with you at all, as you indicated in your reply above.

I've got spamkitty and a few others. They're catching a lot but not nearly everything. I'm not getting enough to clog the servers, though, just enough to be aggravating.