SOAB
IT IS A LINUX BAN ISSUE (with however the packets are fingerprinted)
I forgot I had used NAT in virtualbox for the interface (usually 1 bridge the connection) before moving it to vmware.
Once I bridged the connection instead of NAT, BAM character is there.
OK so now this is proven, they are doing IDS scanning and fingerprinting of the packets as mentioned before.
UPDATE: My character is where it was when I got stuck and I can move around no problem.