Comments problems

I've been told by a reader that they tried to post a comment and got a message saying they'd been banned by the webmaster and their comments would not be posted.

Damn.

The problem lies with Haloscan. I had banned a number of IP addresses because of a stalker who was hacking a number of different addresses. To make it easier for me (and harder for him), I banned ranges, not just individual IPs, so he could no longer make use of a particular hacked site.

Unfortunately, in considering that, Haloscan's system makes no distinction about where in your IP the banned range appears. So, for example, I banned all addresses beginning with 212. If you're on AOL, your IP may begin with 172. If by chance your floating IP for a particular session is, say, 172.9.212.45, you will get banned because of the "212" even though it's not at the beginning.

I told them that system is nuts. It seriously undermines the usefulness of banning. But it's the system they have.

So first -

I would very much like to know if anyone else has had this same problem here. I need to know how serious the situation is before I make any decision about changing what I've done.

And second -

If you're tried to post a comment and gotten the "you're banned" message, please, the next time you're online try again. You may well find there is no ban applied to you.

Sorry for the inconvenience.