Hello Jeni.

That's how Firefox works. When you go back to a page where you were not logged in yet, you get logged off. Although it doesn't always work and if you refresh the page you get logged in again.

The basis of this behavior is that clicking "Back" will take you to a page that is stored in cache, and Firefox doesn't have (in most cases) to redownload the page information again (this is good because it speeds up browsing). You can disable this behavior, but it will mean that every time you press "back", Firefox will re-load the page again, and it will not be instantaneous like it is now.

but they are pages where i am logged in. its as though the cookies arent loading in properly, especially in regards to the bbc website. i have never had this problem before, and ive been using firefox since probably 2001. its only the last two days ive had this problem.

I thought Firefox was released in 2004. Still, you may be having a problem with some extension or plugin that is hindering your Firefox's normal behavior. Have you tried disabling all add-ons (just to check), to see if Firefox goes back to normal?

Try to clear the BBC cookies.

"Clear the Cache": Tools > Options > Advanced > Network > Offline Storage (Cache): "Clear Now" "Remove the Cookies" from sites causing problems: Tools > Options > Privacy > Cookies: "Show Cookies" See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Clearing_the_cache and http://kb.mozillazine.org/Cookies

Start Firefox in Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode to check if one of your add-ons is causing your problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Tools > Add-ons > Themes). See Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems and Troubleshoot issues with plugins like Flash or Java to fix common Firefox problems

Sorry, my mistake, I have been using firefox for a long time though! I've cleared the cache and cleared the cookies which didn't make any difference and I've disabled the two most recently updated addons. I will try in safe mode though. Thanks for the help, I'll post back here soon.

thank you very much for the information on how to start Firefox in safe mode. I have fixed the problem now, it was the Invisible Hand add on causing the problem.

Invisible Hand has been the source of much trouble lately... We should do something about it.