I think Dmitri is right, why not just leave it to us to hit refresh when we need it. Each time a page is refreshed it uses site bandwidth and with auto-refresh on, it means many people are using bandwidth even while away from the computer....lack of an auto-refresh would reduce this greatly.

Sharon, that definatly can and does slow a site down. The more bandwidth being used means more demand on the server and ultimatly can slow it down. It may not be responsible for putting a site offline, but can slow it down to the point where some cant access it, or very slowly at best.