Thanks to both! I'll give it a try.

Thanks. My MySQL programming is pretty simple - straightforward SELECTs.
We've set the site up on another host which appears to run fine (very occasional slowdowns). I guess it must be the current host - we'll be switching hosts soon.
I didn't realise you could run the database on a standalone machine. I'm using a Mac - is it straightforward to do?
Thanks again for all the advice.

Hi
Many thanks for the replies. No, the site is not that popular! And the database is not that large (and indexed). It certainly looks like it's down to the hosting company (we're on a shared server). My own smaller site is with a host offering a virtual server, VDS, which seems a better option, particularly since I can restart the server. Is it worth setting up our own server? I imagine that has its own problems - installation, security issues,...

Hi
I'm running a popular site which hasn't had any problems up to a year ago. Pages can take an age to load and the site is often down. Although we're assuming this is down to the hosting company (and are in the process of moving host) I am concerned that it may be something I've done in the programming. In particular we have had a "multiple connection" error occasionally. Each php page connects to the database but I don't close...