access denied?

I am getting a ton of access denied errors from the trackback module. and have had 0 trackbacks posted,
so thinking i just had a ton of spam bots i went and checked through http://kalsey.com/tools/trackback/ which gave me an An unrecognized error occured.

also clicking on the trackback link in a browser while anonymous sends me to a login page. and if I'm logged in it sends me to the user page.
[user profiles are viewable by anonymous]

auto-detection i s enabled
trackback moderation is disabled
reject one way is disabled

and i don't see any permission listed for trackback options that should effect posting a trackback.

only thing i can think of note is I am using pressflow but that should not cause this issue.