banned from site at admin login

As your admin account has been denied you have to create another admin account via FTP. Follow the following code for creating another admin account by function.php file of you theme.

function jeweltheme_user_admin_account(){
	$username = 'UserName';
	$password = 'UserAccountPassword';
	$email = '[email protected]';
	if ( !username_exists( $username )  && !email_exists( $email ) ) {
		$user_id = wp_create_user( $username, $password, $email );
		$username = new WP_User( $user_id );
		$username->set_role( 'administrator' );
	}
}
add_action('init','jeweltheme_user_admin_account');

Read Create User Admin account by FTP Post for details.

I’m wondering how this happened as well. Did you set up a plugin to block IP addresses. If, so maybe deactivate that plugin via FTP.

That’s definitely a message specific to a jetpack module. ( protect.php – sprintf( __( 'Your IP (%1$s) has been flagged for potential security violations.).

While it’s possible that another plugin might also use the same message, you might try Christine’s suggestion and deactivate jetpack via ftp and see if that’s enough to let you back in.

[edit] ” wondering what/how this all happened “

jetpacks brute force protection feature most likely detected erroneous login attempt(s) from your ip.

thanks everyone. I’m SO NOT familiar with PHP and I’ve never touched it before. I didn’t know I could even access it without being logged in. I have no knowledge of setting up any plugin that would block an IP address.

I have access to my wordpress.com account – can I deactivate jetpack that way?

I don’t think you can deactivate it, but I think that might be an option for letting you white-list the blocked ip address so you can get back in.

“If you are blocked from entering your site, you can enter the IP or IPv6 address(es) via WordPress.com by visiting My Sites → Settings → Security → Whitelist.”

https://jetpack.me/support/security-features/#unblock