>>336
Argh... it does sound like a countrywide block. Though I'm
wondering if it's just that your hostname ends in .se, rather
than .net, .com, etc. Perhaps your ISP changed the hostname
format, which might be why it came into effect out of the
blue.

As for the 2ch 'Gold Account', that's right, it's about $30
(from http://2ch.tora3.net/) and seems to be a sort of
white-listing service. As for readers, so far I've only found
a Windows one (Jane Style) and a Mac/OS one (Thousand), but
will have a search and try to find a Unix-compatible one.