I am not sure what was causing the consistent loop back to the log-in page so I decided to take another route. I deleted the files from the existing V3.x installation and replaced them with the new files from v4.11 instead of my first attempt with v4.05.

I had to FTP them separately because unpacking the archive server side automatically creates a subfolder: /b2evolution which only works if you installed your blog in a sub-directory.

Once I got all of the new files uploaded, I ran the installer and had to change the config file to match my installation, selected to upgrade without the sample files, now everything seems to be stable.

Thanks,
Alex

I never trusted scripts like Fantastico, it's always safer to do installation and upgrades manually.

I agree. That's been my experience over the years. It's like hit or miss. I was just feeling lazy and got the one click one fix illusion.

Alex