persistent log in problems? getting continually bounced back to log in page for gmail, ebay etc?

The problem of a site you regularly use and remain logged into suddenly "bumping" your login and refusing to let you log back in is something that's happened to most people at one time or another. Yet no matter how many times it happens, it's easy, if you're like me at least, even if you are quite a competent computer user, to forget the most likely cause of the problem and jump straight to the usually incorrect conclusion that there's a problem with the site.

For large sites such as gmail / google and ebay this will almost never be the case and when it is they will usually notify you that there's a problem on screen.

If a site you remain logged into suddenly bumps you out, requests you to log back in again and then refuses your login the causes can vary but the fix is almost definitely to:

1. Clear your browser cache
2. Clear all cookies related to the site in question

In Firefox 3.6.17 on Mac OS X I would do this as follows:

1. Clear your browser cache:
   
   1. Go to: Tools / Clear Recent History...
   2. Leave "Time range to clear" set to "Everything"
   3. Ensure only "Cache" is selected in the checkbox list
   4. Click "Clear Now"
2. Clear all cookies related to the site in question:
   
   1. Go to: Firefox / Preferences...
   2. Click "Privacy tab"
   3. Click "remove individual cookies link"
   4. Type "<site_name>" into search box ( replacing "<site_name>" with the site you are having a problem with ). NOTE: Ensure you do this in a manner that will find all cookies related to the site. For example if the problem site is "www.ebay.com.au" type "ebay" into the search box.
   5. Select all search results
   6. Click "Remove all cookies"

9 times out of 10 your login problem will now be solved and you won't have altered your browsing experience for any other sites you visit by removing their cookies.