You can see if its a network issue by telnetting to the IP and the port
telnet 207.97.221.50 80
(thats a space between the 50 and the 80).
If the screen blanks out, then that means there isn't a network connection issue. But, if you get an error saying "could not establish a connection" ,then the network connection is being blocked somewhere.. It doesn't indicate where, but at least you would have proof that its not a banishment of some sorts.
If you are getting a "could not establish a connection" then you could then try a tracert command and see where you are getting stopped at.
tracert 207.97.221.50
and see what you get back.
here is a sample of a tracert from my home computer
Tracing route to new.netadapt.com [207.97.221.50]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 2 ms 2 ms 19 ms 192.168.2.1
2 11 ms 11 ms 11 ms 64.230.197.229
3 9 ms 35 ms 9 ms 64.230.229.101
4 10 ms 10 ms 9 ms core3-toronto63-Gigabite4-0.in.bellnexxia.net [206.108.107.169]
5 20 ms 20 ms 20 ms core2-chicago23-pos0-0.in.bellnexxia.net [206.108.103.114]
6 20 ms 20 ms 19 ms rtp628550rts [64.230.203.150]
7 20 ms 21 ms 20 ms 206.108.108.166
8 21 ms 44 ms 41 ms cer-core-03.inet.qwest.net [205.171.139.149]
9 36 ms 35 ms 35 ms dca-core-02.inet.qwest.net [205.171.9.6]
10 36 ms 37 ms 36 ms dcx-core-01.inet.qwest.net [205.171.8.222]
11 37 ms 37 ms 37 ms dcx-edge-01.inet.qwest.net [205.171.251.42]
12 37 ms 37 ms 37 ms 67.133.246.158
13 37 ms 79 ms 45 ms vlan901.core1.iad1.rackspace.com [69.20.1.10]
14 39 ms 38 ms 38 ms aggr7a.iad1.rackspace.com [69.20.2.27]
15 38 ms 38 ms 37 ms new.netadapt.com [207.97.221.50]
Trace complete.
If it fails, you will start seeing * * * request timed out..
I think thats the point.. Russ is stating nothing has changed on his end, meaning, that he hasn't banned anyone's ip's.. (incase you weren't aware, Russ is the admin)
Sometimes ports and IPs are blocked with IT people knowing, because the IT people are not always responsible for the complete network path from Building to RHP. Sometimes it could be their ISP that might block ports, etc. I would doubt it would be a port blockage though, since I believe this would only be port 80.. unless they have some funky port usage beyond a typical website.
What is the message you receive when attempting to access the site?
Do you have other shared workstations at work that could try accessing? see if you get the same thing? There are a few symptoms on why you would get a blank page, but not sure why all of the sudden.. Someone hasn't messed with the internet explorer settings ? If maybe, you could go into Tools - Internet Options - security.. Highlight INTERNET, and click custom level, then click reset. close browser and try again.
But.. actually, don't think you've mentioned.. which browser are you using? And, if you are using one, but have another browser on the system, could you try that browser and see what happens?
MIODude
Another thing you could try doing is re-registering the DLL's (if you are using internet explorer)..
try running this from the start - run command (with internet explorer closed). If recently you have upgraded, or patch Internet Explorer (patching due to recent viruses?)
and the dll's haven't registered properly, it can cause blank page issues. Each of these would be run separately.. as two separate commands.
regsvr32 urlmon.dll
regsvr32 actxprxy.dll
After running that, you have to restart your brownser and try again.
Again.. this would all mean nothing if not using IE
also under those security settings - ensure Allow Meta Refresh is enabled.. I disabled it trying to recreate the problem on this site.. but it didn't recreate the problem.. hehe.. then I forgot to re-enable it, and my wife was complaining that some other websites weren't working, they were coming up blank.