EDIT (Answer):
If you change your sub-domain say from http://www.hotname.com to hostname.com you will change cookies. If your session rely on cookies(mine do) then you will have a new set of session variables.
In short keep track of your domains/sub-domains when working with cookies.
The session ID is stored in a cookie.
When you click
Login, you generate a cookie forarchemarks.com, then redirect towww.archemarks.com, which has no cookie.