(and others with the same problem)
The problem has been resolved! For a long time I had an entry
for www.ncsa.uiuc.edu in my /etc/hosts (to save a round trip to the
nameserver over my slip line)
three people told me to remove that entry, and so I did. Instantly I
could reconnect to ncsa as I could before.
perhaps a short message on the meta-announcements in what's new should
mention this explicitly.
I'm a happy user again!
:-) (see I'm happy)
-frans