I have just installed DotNetNuke (v 3.0.12) to a new local database. It appears that everthing installed successfully. I go my site and get the Welcome to DotNetNuke splash screen with the instructions to update the host and admin password. 

However, when I login as either admin or host I do NOT see the admin (or host) tab (I see only the "Home" tab).  I know I am logging in as admin okay because if I enter an invalid password for the admin account (something other than "admin") I correctly get an invalid password message. Same thing happens with the host account ..again only the Home tab is shown.

Any ideas on what I can try or what I am doing wrong?  

Thanks.

Hmmm my initial thought was that maybe preview was turned on but that doesn't appear to make a difference. Does the Control Panel show up at the top of the page?

Wait a second, something just occured to me. Do you have any kind of software firewall installed on your system (such as Norton Internet Security or Zone Alarm)? Try turning them off. One of my site admins was having a ton o' problems similar to yours yet I could log in with his credentials without a problem. It took turning off his ZA to solve the problem.

Thanks for your response!

I still seem to have the same behavior, NO admin or host tabs upon login.

I have verified that all software firewalls are completely disabled (XP's and Norton Systemworks).  BTW, the Control Panel (or admin / host tabs) are NOT displayed (In fact, there is NO visable difference on the default splash screen when I log in as either admin or host).

I have tried to re-install (w/ a fresh DB) a few times, everything installs fine but I never get the admin tab.

Note: The only non-standard step I need to do during DotNetNuke (v3.0.12) install is put a <clear/> in the httpModules section in my web.config otherwise I get a"'UrlRewrite' already defined" configuration error reading the web.config. I did have DotNetNuke 2.1.2 install previously. (The admin tab worked on that version).  Before installing v3.0.12  I removed the 2.1.2 versions physical directory and the virtual-dir from IIS. Plus, I am installing v3.0.12 into a NEW local database. I do not know why I get that config error w/o the "clear". I've verified that my home directory (c:\DotNetNuke) and default document are correcly set in IIS for the default web site and I do NOT have a web.config my Inetpub\wwwroot dir.

ANY other ideas on why the admin or host tabs would not show up when I login as either admin or host?

Agggghhh Norton Systemworks, the bane of my existence!!! If you knew how many student laptops I see in a week trying to connect to the internal network but can't because of Norton you'd understand.

Now that you've got Norton disabled (XP's shouldn't cause a problem) try this as it usually works with the laptops I see.

First, try deleting your cookies and Temporary Internet Files. Then go to Tools->Internet Options and then the Security Tab. Reset the Security to the Default Level even if it already says it is. Norton makes changes in there that don't get removed when it's disabled.

Nope, deleting the cookies, temporary Internet Files and resetting the security level in IE did not seem to help.  I also tried setting my security level to accept all cookies (low). ...again, no impact. Thanks much for the suggestion tho. 

Ah, who needs the admin or host tabs anyway?