I was playing happily away with only 2 other users online (last I checked) and suddenly the next window won't load. This was around 1300 hours GMT+10. No matter what I click, the browser is "waiting for aatrade.springfield.net" and eventually times out and ditches me to the "You need to log in" screen.
I can get the login screen okay, and when I log in the browser cache seems to load the lobby screen, though not the chat window, and I click main menu, or whatever, it hangs again.

I'm stuck out in the middle of nowhere here, I need to get back to my SG!

FYI, this has happened before, but usually it was minor. This one's lasted half an hour. Any ideas?

Did you try closing your browser? Sometimes your browser can get whacked out. I know mine has in the past. I was just ona fe minutes ago with no prob so it sounds like its on your end.

I retried about half an hour ago and ran back to SG, so I'm fine, but I just tried logging in again and same deal. So I opened up an IE window (I use FF by default) and tried, no dice. It's most likely my end since I'm at work going via proxy, but I wanted to double check, as this is sporadic and odd.

It seems especially strange that I can log in, but not get past the lobby. Perhaps changing my default layout would help? (I'm using PJs adjustable windows one)

It's probably your proxy. Proxies are flaky and we will not try and support the logging in through a proxy. If you can do it then great but if you have problems playing through a proxy don't ask us for help. Not our problem.