Hi Paul,
That is probably not related to any change in AFNI (no one is
touching that code right now, I believe). But you can turn it
off by setting AFNI_VERSION_CHECK to No. Otherwise,
such a check happens every 5 days (assuming the check
succeeds).
Send me email with your IP address, so that I can make sure
you weren't accidentally blacklisted on our end.
- rick