Hi - MSDE is creaking (imo) because in the event logs I see the 'exceeded 8 concurrent connections' too many times.  The site is not busy yet either!  What I was trying to find out is if my interpretation of the event logs, is resulting in a visible effect on performance for visitors to the site.  From what I've read though, the delays introduced are minimal, and most likely have no visible effects (the queries/SPs I run only return small amounts of data anyway).

I have, and do use MySQL elsewhere - but went to MSDE as it was part of a windows server package I lease - and it works well with .Net data providers.

I know MySQL 5 now has SPs, but I would be uncomfortable transferring the tables and data to another database.  Eg. how would I transfer three tables which have a one to many to many relationship?  Autonumber fields are generated by the db server are they not?  If there's a way around this, then I most likely would consider that option until the site is busy enough to justify a proper SQL licence.

Thanks again, Mark