Many times when I start a new thread it seems to take more than aminute to get a response. It caused me to double post tonight. Is this normal or is it a firewall or some other program?

I never had that problem. Maybe it's the 3 hr time difference. :)

Well maybe the forums are in need of an indexing... I'll defer that to Al though. I noticed as well, it takes longer to post a new topic than it does to add to one.

Early evenings are finding the server with a lot of visitors on the site. we may try doubling our memory.
We've already optimized as many of the settings as we can. We should really lower the 'busy' notice - it is set pretty high so you can still view the forum if the server gets swamped, otherwise it says "try again later" which allows those who are posting to post quickly.
a one or the other situation.

It caused my first multiple post. I closed the window and started all over again, but it still posted the original. Sorry.

nothing to apologize for Gary, the system got it's hooks into the first post and kept processing it. Just the way this forum software works.