Don't know if it's related or not, but somehow I managed to get myself blacklisted from "forum.netgate.com."
I initially thought the forum was down as my attempts to refresh multiple forum pages took longer and longer and finally timed out. I can only guess my attempts to refresh multiple times was regarded as "nefarious" by some algorithm or other.
Eventually I tried from a clients site and was able to connect without an issue.
I prompted an IP address change for my home network and voila - all is well again.
Hopefully just more teething pains.....