It's back up! iPad was still working correctly, but the connection to the VPS had dropped. I suspect network issue.
[Begin whine]
Not that anyone is likely to read this 6 day old thread any more, but I fished my "collectible" iPad 1 out of where it was rotting...
... and the battery is bulging. To the point of deforming the aluminium casing. Time to run and drop it at recycling instead of jailbreaking it :(
[End whine]
I do hope the site comes back as it has a convenient old ipad jailbreaking summary and i do have this ipad 1 gathering dust somewhere...