Jim, without visiting and watching what's actually happening, I would only be guessing.  Pick whichever explanation you want to run with, or make one up on your own.If you are using Internet Explorer, then the page probably loads from cache, so it looks like you are connected, but your Microsoftware is still dicking around adjusting the seats, mirrors, etc, and trying a bit of choke.  Then when you try and change from the first page, Internet Explorer will finally wake up and realise it needs to do something that isn't in your cache.If you are using Firefox or Google Chrome, I wouldn't really have a clue, because I certainly can't duplicate the behaviour, so all my other explanations have been torpedoed - except, depending on your security settings, your computer may not be storing the BMWOR cookie (I'm reasonably certain our forum only sets one cookie.)  Without the cookie, the Forum won't recognise you at home because you will have a dynamic IP address assigned by your ISP, and it won't know that IP.  This may not happen at work, where the IP is often static.Short version is I'm durned if I know, so that makes us a pair, eh?

mine jams me around to and i dont have a clue. using firefox

There is another very useful function that is not so obvious, from the Home page, scroll right to the bottom and in the “Forum Stats” panel there is a link to “View the most recent posts on the forum”

thanks Bruce will try that