Using Cache object hanging webserver

[Neil Kimber]

Hi,
I'm using the Cache object to persist some values between pages. I'm
setting the expiration for 2 minutes. I'm actually storing Bitmap streams in
the cache. In this way, one page can draw an image and store it and another
page can be responsible for streaming it to the browser.

This approach works well in that the Bitmap is correctly stored, the
other page can read the data and stream it correctly. Once streamed I do not
want to dispose of the Bitmap, I want it to persist in the Cache for the
next 2 minutes. This is because I have DHTML on my page that requests an
image multiple times.

My problem: sometimes the webserver stops servicing requests. This is
almost immediately evident on my web-hosting provider. If I run the same
code on my development box then I can duplicate the behaviour by hammering
the web-page using ACT. At various times (after 4000+ requests) the serviced
requests flat-line (i.e. nothing is serviced). At this point the web-server
stops servicing any requests.

My assumption: I assume that I am hogging resources, however, I would
expect resources used in the cache to be released. I've looked at the state
of the system using Perfmon and do not see anything that rings alarm bells.

Has anyone else experienced similar behaviour when using the Cache object?
Does anyone have any good suggestions regarding how to prevent this from
happening or concretely confirm that it is the use of the Cache object that
is causing this problem?

Thanks,
Neil