the below entry, opening max connections for sql - was indeed a fix.
default is 151, and i now have been a solid 200 connections for a week with no issues.

in debian 11, i did the following :

sudo su -
mysql -D fog
SET GLOBAL max_connections = 512;

To make this a permanent solution, refer to the link in the previous post.

@Sebastian-Roth I will give the doc a read through, but I believe it was more or less set up by IT. I plugged in my system to the network by ethernet through an VOIP phone, and gave them the system’s MAC address and then they assigned the box an IP. I do not recall messing with settings other than the systems proxy settings when getting on the network.