I've been working this morning on

A) alternatives to my current "shared hosting" with Hostgator
B) looking into dedicated server options
C) Getting CathInfo completely set up on my local machine (a Linux server)
D) Updating the sites code so it works on any server (apparently CathInfo's code is a bit old, and some recent versions of PHP don't like it.)

I finished C and D as of 2:45 PM Monday.

I have a local copy of CathInfo running on my extremely fast PC, and everything works. All the posts are there. So you don't have to worry about the content being lost or anything like that. I know how valuable CathInfo is, especially its content.

I also have formed a pretty good idea of a good dedicated server I can use for now, while I work on acquiring and setting up hardware here locally.

I have literally been losing sleep over this. I was up late last night brainstorming my options and looking into them. I'm getting much closer now. The situation is becoming clearer, my options are focusing, etc.

Making good progress!

The saying, "If it doesn't kill you it makes you stronger." comes to mind. CathInfo is going to be much faster, more resilient, etc. in the long term thanks to these minor "denial of service" attacks. The couple days outage will be a minor inconvenience, a distant memory to all of us members.

But CathInfo will emerge stronger and more resilient than ever!

We've just sent off a small donation to you, Matthew.  I know nothing about "dedicated servers," much less all the minutia surrounding the technology.  But if in the end, this amounts to a cyber attack on your forum, then it is worth supporting you in some way. If, on the other hand, it's a matter of indeliberate, or mindless, or unavoidable cyber failures, then, I guess, we'll know that sooner or later too.

I thought of a good analogy --

CathInfo's current lodging is equivalent to a homeless shelter, or a massive FEMA shelter for post-Katrina hurricane victims. Not very good customer service, living elbow-to-elbow with hundreds of other people (websites). You can survive by living this way, but you might have various problems!

CathInfo is not unemployed, mentally ill, nor is it a drug addict. So it's time to get CathInfo into a proper HOME where it can have some space and have some control over its surroundings.