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halfacookie,

When you find yourself banned, just log off from the internet and log back on again.
There are several AOL IPs banned on that board. You might need to let the board admin know that this is going to be causing problems.
If you keep seeing the banned message, you could try and get into the 64 range, which won't give you the banned message.
To know your IP, click on this link after logging on to the internet.
http://whatsmyip.org/

What does "getting into the 64 range" mean?

I should have said 64.12 range.

I am going to elaborate a bit in this reply, because we are getting many reports of AOL users who find themselves banned on the boards and perhaps this will help board owners to see that banning AOL IPs (or any dynamic IP) is not a good idea.

AOL has different IP ranges, but they vary.
Here is an example of AOL ranges.

64.12.96.0 - 64.12.127.255
149.174.160.0 - 149.174.175.255
152.163.0.0 - 152.163.255.255
195.93.0.0 - 195.93.127.255
198.81.0.0 - 198.81.31.255
202.67.64.128 - 202.67.64.255
205.188.0.0 - 205.188.255.255
207.200.112.0 - 207.200.119.255

Logging on with an AOL IP or any other dynamic IP is like using a public phone to make your phone calls.
Say you call from the public phone at the corner of your street. You'll be dialing from a certain number, because that particular phone has its own specific number. The next time you use a public phone, you use the phone at the store, two blocks down. You are now dialing from a different number. But no matter which phone you use, someone will have used it before you did, and someone will use it after you do, so they will be calling from the same number you did.
It is the same with a dynamic IP. A dynamic IP could be considered a public number rather than a private number. Someone has used the number before you did, and someone else will use it after you are done with it.
If one of the people who used it before you did was being a bad boy or girl on the board, the board owner might have banned the number. Now you are using that number and you see yourself banned.

A static IP on the other hand is an IP that is given to you and it is yours, just like when you have your own phone in the house as opposed to using a public phone. If you have your own phone, you'll always be dialing from the same number.

The problem is that there aren't enough static IPs to give every person who uses the internet their own number. Thus, some internet service providers have a certain amount of numbers, but they have more users than there are numbers. Their numbers go in a "pool". When you log on to the internet, you draw a number out of that pool and you will use that number for the time you are logged on. When you log off, the number you used goes back in the pool and someone else will draw it next time around.
AOL is famous for having a small IP pool which causes problems on message boards because if several people on the board use AOL they are likely to draw a number that has already been used by a different member on the board.

Banning a dynamic IP and especially an AOL IP, is useless and only leads to trouble for innocent users. The member who used the IP will draw a different number next time they log on, so they will no longer be banned. The only thing accomplished here is that other members who will draw that IP will be banned for no reason.

Why does it happen so often with AOL? Because there are a lot of AOL users on the internet, most likely more AOL users than users with a different ISP. The chances that more than 4 people use peoplepc or earthlink on an average sized board are slim while the chances that less than 4 people on an average sized board use AOL are just as slim. There will be more than 4.

Bottom line: don't ban dynamic IPs, it is quite useless.

How does a board owner know when an IP is dynamic?
Some ISPs have their ranges listed, but some don't, but you can pretty much tell who has a dynamic IP on the board.
When the board owner looks up a profile and looks at the IPs used by this profile, if the member has been to the board several times, they will most likely show multiple IPs, this is an indication that their IP is dynamic. If the member has been to the board on several occasions and there is only 1 IP showing, it means that the IP is static. in such cases - and only in such cases- an IP ban can be effective.


Now, when you find yourself banned by IP for no reason, throw that number you are using back in the IP pool by logging off from the internet, and draw a different number out of the pool by logging on again.
Does that solve the problem? Not always, it depends on whether a specific number is banned or a range is banned. Most IP bans are specific numbers, not ranges. Board owners only tend to ban a range when they have a particularly stubborn user who keeps coming back after being banned.

Certain ranges serve certain geographical locations. The 205, 207 and 64 ranges are within the same geographical location if I'm not mistaken. Banning a dynamic IP range is a particularly bad idea.

Halfcookie, maybe you can link the owner of the board to this post because there are several AOL IPs banned on that board.