AOL connection is being denied.

When I open up safari, I have my AOL welcome screen as my main page.  But as I open it, I can see in the address box that there are two addresses jumping back a forth.  www.aol.com and https://my.screenname.aol.com/ ...with a whole bunch of other stuff after this one.  Then in the blank white screen (that normally turns to the welcome screen when connected) has a message for me, The service you are trying to reach is temporarily unavailable - please try your request again.. *But when I do, same thing keeps happening.
I was once told to clear my past address or cookies or something like that, every so often to prevent this from happening...but I've forgotten how.  Help please :)