I also got that message about my IP address being banned, and could not quite see why. So, given that there seemed to be an option to contact the SDMB, I wrote a plaintive but no doubt somewhat testy little message saying “Oh, what have I done to offend?” So, I hope the admin. or mods. can ignore that message if, as it seems, this was a general problem.
Oh, the horror! I am sort of glad to hear that others have had the same problem, except that it is not very nice to be glad that others have …blah, blah, blah. Do I make myself clear? No? Well, I didn’t really expect to, but forgive me 'cos I am still in shock. So this is pretty much a test post, because I really thought that somehow I had been banished.