Update: My initial attempt to resolve this problem via Pogoplug Support ended in ticket #14358 being summarily closed by "Ray". No reply addressing the actual symptoms or malfunction was given.

Hi Peter-

Ran the cccleaner flush, removed and reinstalled the local app via ppdrive_win32_2_1_2.msi. Disabled all Firefox security plugins that might intercept cookies, popups, ads etc.

But still no change in browser reload-cycling behavior in either FF or IE7. Does the web app use Java? I've got FF addons for 6.0.04/05/07/11 active; don't remember installing them, must be automated. But what's the excuse for IE acting so similarly?

I should note that I am running Norton Security in the background. Also I get internet through a Motorola Wimax modem accessing the Clearwire wireless service here in Seattle. I wonder whether there are others using a similar setup... There is firewalling active on several levels here, but I haven't run across a FAQ with recommendations on anything that might be pertinent.

Meanwhile I got on Amazon and one-starred Pogoplug with a description of this problem and how Pogoplug tech support have handled matters to date. If PP want to ramp up resources to find a solution I'll be glad to delete or amend the poor review...

Thanks for the suggestion--guess I'll beat on it for another day or two before returning the PP for a refund.

Mr Glass' suggestion seems to do the trick... at first. I opened https://my.pogoplug.com/settings.html which, maybe due to some cookie somewhere, did not ask for a login. I walk thru the settings, maybe tick and untick a box or two, and sign out.

But when I closed the browser and tried again at https://my.pogoplug.com/ entering email and PW just takes me back to the same page unchanged. No more looping, but nothing else either. so sometimes I'm able to bring up the web access portal, sometimes not.

The biggie here is that the web portal login seems consistently to work only if the Full SSL security option is ticked--and without a direct link to that page, there's no way to set the dang thing in the first place!

This is stoopid because w/ SSL full on then even local access must be funnelled thru pogoplug's servers. There is evidently some unpleasant interaction between cookies and security settings that makes access unstable and quirky.