The monthly site slowdowns don't bother me. I can just try again the next day if it's not working. But I can see it upsets many other people, so maybe a new business model is needed. Hire 3 or 4 more guys for weekend/night shifts if the problems are happening then. Get somebody to examine server logs daily to determine which IP blocks to ban when suspected of DOS attacks or excessive bandwidth. Contact AOL, Earthlink or other ISP bandwidth hogs and tell them to turn off hourly site caching. Hire guys who are on call 24/7 to handle problems with attachment servers, or e-mail servers deluged by the latest Windows virus attack. If it's true that clients perceive the site as having unexplained monthly downtimes and connections slower than dial-up most of the time, that can't be good for business.