nlapiRequestURL suddenly errors with SSS_UNKNOWN_HOST

As of this morning, all of a sudden one of our server suitescripts has started failing - anyone experiencing anything similar or have an explanation?

Specifically calling  :

nlapiRequestURL(url, null, null, null);

where variable url is a simple webpage with parameters

var url= "http://www.somewebsite.com/doit/doit.asp?parameter=5823484&param2=2834243" "

results in an error message :

Account: XXXXXX
Environment: Production
Date & Time: 5/20/2008 2:32 pm
Record Type: Sales Order
Internal ID: 211575
Execution Time: 20.19s
Script Usage: 10
Script: BeforeSubmitSalesOrder
Type: User Event
Function: beforeSaveSalesOrder
Error: SSS_UNKNOWN_HOST
The host you requested http://www.somewebsite.com/doit/doit.asp?parameter=5823484&param2=2834243 is unknown or cannot be found.