Scott,

i use a mod called "traffic director".  it does the job just fine.  i only use it on sign in.  by default it does not redirect host or admin.  the problem that is happening is intermittent.  it happens only about 20% of the time.  the only consistency that i find is that it seems to happen when i use links that are created by "Indoogrid" module on a dynamic grid view.  These modules are visible on pages that are restricted by roles.  Sebastian mentioned that i need to use relative paths (to include www in all my links).  most of my links are missing "www" and only use http://.  i will try that to see if it has an effect.  the inconsistency is what bothers me most about it.  its like something does what its not supposed to sometimes.  that makes it very difficult to diagnose.  i'll change the links and see.  any other suggestions are welcome.

Regarding the logout after 20 minutes thing; you said that there is nothing in web.config that can control that.  Do you know of a way around this?  a senior tech at my hosting company says that to have control over when the application pool recycles; i would have to step up to the next plan which is almost 9 times higher than what i'm paying now.  that's not feasible at the moment.  furthermore, i'm skeptical about the validity of that statement.  there may be truth to it.  but, there is usually another way to skin a cat and i'd like to know how in this case.  I appreciate all your suggestions.  Thanks.

Brandon