At first, I though it was a cookie problem or a session timeout. I logged in, I'm in and redirected to the index page. (Arrgh, why can't they design it in a way so that when I log in while in Websites and Multimedia, I remain there, not redirected to the index page! Anyway, that's another problem.Â* ) Then I choose a forum. Oh, yes, I was at Websites and Multimedia. So I clicked that forum and eventually got there. I checked my status. Yep, still logged in. My fingers was aching to type in a reply for a certain topic I read awhile ago. So I clicked it so I can post there. Guess what, I was back to Guest. Ever experienced this?

Chances are that your computer belongs to a network at work or in school. This phenomenon occurs when your Internet gateway server uses a web proxy server, which caches up pages you have visited, much like the way Internet Explorer stores up visited pages in your Temporary Internet Files folder. After logging in, when you return to the page you have previously visited, the proxy server will give you the old version of that page, while you were still a guest.

The solution is to add a question mark at the end of the url in the address bar of your browser and press GO or hit Enter key. (Refreshing the page rejects the new URL.) You should have the logged in version of that page after doing so. Adding a question mark to the url converts the page request to a query and forces the proxy server to retrieve a new version of the page.

In any case, this is a downside to SMF. This never occurs with phpBB. There is another problem arising with proxy-served computers. When I edit a post like this one, SMF will return an error saying I already submitted that post.Â* Arrgh!