I think I've found that when support say "it's not the SQL severs" or even "it's not the servers generally" it actually is.
I've spent all night asking people i know on IM whether they can get two of the domains I just started hosting here [paid system, not free] after thinking it was something else... and it's not. I've had 2 weeks of failed page requests and I'm leaving.
One honest element of this service is they give a month to try the place and also allow access after you move. All i've learned is that cheaper end hosting means the companies have to over-stretch what they can offer. In the end we'd all prefer to pay a bit more and get decent uptime.
NB: Like the OP, I too use joomla and it's been god-awful getting the DBase to react. There again my index pages are NOT sql driven and they don't come back half the time.
Laters...
ELfWave
Wrong... the service status stuff seems to mean little in my experience.
