I’m writing this from a new server – a different one to the public website. I have set up a duplicate of the whole website on with a new host in a bid to resolve the lack of server resources from the current host. I’d taken all the steps possible to reduce resource usage (image optimisation, code optimisation, reduction in database queries, browser caching, server caching, use of a CDN, etc). I even re-wrote a load of ASP code in PHP (that’s now complete). It all helped, but just wasn’t enough, and the ‘503’ errors persisted, along with files failing to render, etc.
The good news is that the new server is experiencing no such problems. Now that ASP is no longer a part of the site, and it’s now 100% PHP, I am free to move away from IIS hosting on Windows to a Linux server, which is what I’ve done. It will take me time to reconfigure certain elements of the site (security, caching, etc) until I can make this version live, but early indications are that it will be worth it. The Nightjars will be arriving any time now, and I will be too occupied to devote as much time to this, but I believe the finish line really is getting close at last!