Okay, ignoring the "other" sites that may or not be there...
I believe AJ got a Duran server, not very powerful, and he said 2 gigs of memory, or something like that. They don't make those, and would be about 60 dollars a month now.
What ever it is, it's getting old, and there are limits. I think it's either his database, which must be very very large or a hardware error like a switch. I don't believe theres a cron going that throttles back the site, as the amount of traffic would be less (as there's far fewer tables released now than before)
I don't like the server host he uses either, as there has been a few times when this has happened over the years.
He also has a very old version of VB (6 years old!) and a very bad frontend that's incompatible with anything (It's nuke based) and also has a excessive amount of server queries and server load compared to what's out now.
As it stands, if you keep the present setup, it will continue to have problems and the gaps in between those problems will get closer and closer until it's months as opposed to years when the site does this.
The site generates a bit of traffic, I would say about 20 gigs not including the downloads. Downloads would do roughly 50 gigs. Page views at the 1-1.5 million or so level
The biggest problem is you have to be able to grow as well, as the traffic may increase with new members, and also an increase in file downloading etc.
This is my solution, or what I would do if VPF was dropped in my lap, and I am sure quite a few people would scream, but the present situation is pretty apparent that a major change is needed, and a complete overhaul is required.
I don't think AJ has renewed the license for VB in Years, so add 60 dollars first. You also need another 50 or so for other things like the domain name etc.
The software has to be replaced, it's just too old now, and with the front end, putting a huge strain on the site. The only thing is you lose the contents of the database, but quite a bit of it is out of date anyway.
Once you get the licence renewed, then it's time for a new server, and a new host for it. You also have to be able to pay for it, so I would remove the unlimited one time member payment, and make it a small payment yearly instead (Very easy to do, and BTW, can be setup to do it automatically, and no wait period, so instant member access)
For my server, I would be looking at a package like this:
2.8Ghz x 2 Pentium D
1,280GBs Bandwidth
1GB memory (you really need 2, but it's very expensive, add 30 bucks a month)
160GB Hard Drive
Your looking at 99 per month, very decent dedicated host for a basic setup like this.
I would prefer to put a fresh copy in, but VB will still upgrade from a old version, so set it in admin, load it in, remove the entire front end system and replace it with a new one and start taking a knife to the database.
I would prune if not remove most of the archives, and would even prune out members who have not logged in once the last 2 years (that would be at least 75000, but members take up quite a bit within the database with their settings etc, and they could always re-register anyway)
Most of the stuff other than the downloads are easy enough to put back in, not a lot of typing. The downloads would be the thing, but may be a easy solution, though I admit I'm a bit rusty on such things now.