Actually, our server is fine and so is our T1 connection to the Internet.
It is more of a problem with Internet connectivity coming from psu.edu
(most likely MCI which is in the middle).
The Internet is like a ocean. There are high tides where data flows
fast and low tides when data flow is slow. It's a huge network and
while one person can have fast access to the site, another person
connecting from another site might have really slow response. It
depends on the traffic that the packets travel though and if the surrounding
traffic of that link is too flooded (ie MCI), then the packet will
take longer to get to the target host. It may just timeout and
try another route if it can.
Hope this helps in explaining how the Internet works. I am
real close to it every day and can actually see when parts of the
net get slow... It really does seem like an ocean...
-lile
(a webmaster@art.net)