I'm not sure why you're experiencing that, Roseanne ~ I checked
DreamHost Status ~ there's a thread,
External attacks affecting customers across all datacenters, first posted early afternoon that says some are "experiencing connectivity issues" because of the external attacks ~ there are several updates to the original posts, saying the engineers are working on the problem but it's slow going ~ if Jab comes back online tonight, I'll ask him to check ~ I'm not sure what else to suggest ~ I'll keep watch at DreamHost ~ and you can too via the above link ~
Sooz