[rhn-users] telnet xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com 443 failing

[redhat cpe-66-1-109-224 co sprintbbd net]

Up until 2 weeks ago, my system (RH 7.3) was able to run 'up2date -u' with
no problems.  Then all of a sudden it started failing with the msg:
    Error communicating with server.  The message was:
    Connection timed out
I try running:
    telnet xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com 443
per the RH help web pages and this is also failing.  

Absolutely nothing at my end has changed.  Yes I have a firewall, but it
has not changed.  I can https/443 out to other machines no problem
(including rhn.redhat.com and listman.redhat.com).  I can port 80 to
xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com no problem.  So why can't I get to
xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com/443?

So either the problem is at the RH end (them filtering my IP out for some
odd reason) or some machine between me and RH is doing something it
shouldn't.

Running traceroute is inconclusive since it gets to a point and then stops
showing any host info (for redhat.com which I have no problems http'ing
to).

Any suggestions/thoughts/ideas would be appreciated.

    ++Tait