This may be UBB-forum software related (nothing extraneous is present when I copy the text from my first post above from its edit box into TextWrangler)...
I can't copy text from your first post's edit box because I'm not a mod in this forum, but if I use the UBB "Quote" button, I can copy the text from the post-composing field in the resulting New Reply window, and it's that copied URL text which reveals the presence of unspecified additional characters when TextWrangler's
View menu ->
Show Invisibles command is invoked.
To me, this indicates that the extra characters were present in the URL text that you initially posted. They showed up in Ira's post simply because his reply was initiated using the Quote button referred to above; therefore, the unseen characters came along for the ride.
Sure has the sound of a DNS issue of some sort, to me.
