All of a sudden topics are taking loads of time ("Generated in 128.55 seconds in which 127.033...) to load as opposed to the usual fraction of a second.

What could be the cause of this? Number of users is not the issue as this is not happening at a peak time. My current suspicions are a number of users who are either simultaneously searching the forum or toggling the threaded view (or expanding topics) which is frying the server. Does this sound viable?

How can I protect against this if this is the case? The search functions I can limit via the CP, but can I alter the templates to completely remove the threaded view/expand functions so as to not make them available?

Crickey, now the following:
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Warning: mysql_connect(): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (11) in /home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/mysql.inc.php on line 36

Warning: table_wrapper(/home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/templates//tbopen.tmpl): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/ubbt.inc.php on line 1411

Warning: table_wrapper(): Failed opening '/home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/templates//tbopen.tmpl' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/ubbt.inc.php on line 1411

Warning: table_wrapper(/home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/templates//tbclose.tmpl): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/ubbt.inc.php on line 1412

Warning: table_wrapper(): Failed opening '/home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/templates//tbclose.tmpl' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/ubbt.inc.php on line 1412

Warning: mysql_query(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in /home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/mysql.inc.php on line 108

Warning: table_wrapper(/home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/templates//tbopen.tmpl): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/ubbt.inc.php on line 1411

Warning: table_wrapper(): Failed opening '/home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/templates//tbopen.tmpl' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/ubbt.inc.php on line 1411

Warning: table_wrapper(/home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/templates//tbclose.tmpl): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/ubbt.inc.php on line 1412

Warning: table_wrapper(): Failed opening '/home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/templates//tbclose.tmpl' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/ubbt.inc.php on line 1412

Warning: not_right(/home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/templates//ubbt_notright.tmpl): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/ubbt.inc.php on line 583

Warning: not_right(): Failed opening '/home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/templates//ubbt_notright.tmpl' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/ubbt.inc.php on line 583

Warning: table_wrapper(/home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/templates//tbopen.tmpl): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/ubbt.inc.php on line 1411

Warning: table_wrapper(): Failed opening '/home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/templates//tbopen.tmpl' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/ubbt.inc.php on line 1411

Warning: table_wrapper(/home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/templates//tbclose.tmpl): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/ubbt.inc.php on line 1412

Warning: table_wrapper(): Failed opening '/home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/templates//tbclose.tmpl' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/forum/public_html/ubbthreads/ubbt.inc.php on line 1412

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What is going on?

To me it looks like an issue with your host, especially if it just started happening out of the blue and you didn't modify any scripts between when it was working and now.

For your hosting, are you using a shared server btw?

You should really contact them to find out what's up.

We're actually on a dedicated server, big mutha dual xeon with a gig or ram, and all this is happening at a time when we only have about 1/4 of the users that we usually get at peak times.

When everything was running properly I still recall waiting 20 seconds on some expand feature, so I thought that if a few geeks tried doing this simultanouely on my server then they could cause it to work overtime.

Have you tuned MySQL - or is it still "out of the box"? Check the Tune MySQL parts 1 and 2 threads in the MySQL forum here.

MySQL out of the box won't serve you very well, it needs to be tuned for your hardware and your specicific demands.

Haven't tuned it yet, but was surprised to see such things happening with only 1/4 of the users present compared to what we normally get at peak times. Will get on with the tuning though to see if I can optimize things.

Now this probably sounds like a silly question, but how do I access the command prompt so that I can change the MySQL .cnf file to my-large.cnf? Or can I do that with a graphic-type interface somewhere in WHM?

In order to do that you need to have shell access. I have a reseller account in Vertexhost and my reseller account is set up with shell access so whenever I need to do something that requires shell access, I use that one. Alternatively tools like PuTTY can allow you to get shell access to the server - provided that you have the username and password and (no offense intended) that you know what you are doing.

You can copy my-large.cnf or even my-huge.cnf and paste it into /etc as /etc/my.cnf. Then you have to stop and start MySQL, method depends on your OS and environment.

As Josh suggested, your server specs don't matter until you tune MySQL. And until you tune MySQL, you'll likely continue to experience problems.

Since I have a dedicated server I probably have shell access, but how do I go about using it - how do I bring up the command prompt? Does WHM have an option for that?

usually to gain shell access you need to use an ssh client like SecureCRT..

Or Putty.

What is WHM?

Web Host Manager - is' the way to manage CPanel servers.

Your servers wouldn't be at InterNap would they?

Thanks fellas!! Server is at hostdime.com. Running better lately, but still need to ensure this never happens again. Will give SSH a shot tonight to see if I can make some basic adjustments to MySQL.