Login timeout and redirection

I'm using Gallery v1.5 and I have two issues/questions:

* Logins time out after a very short time. How do I lengthen that time?
* When logging in, I'm forced to re-visit the original URL from scratch.

The combination of these two issues means that if I have a link to a specific gallery and I follow it. I'm first told that I need to log in to view the item. I then log in again, and I'm not given my desired link but I'm instead sent to the root.

Is there something I'm missing for either of these issues? Are they different/resolved in Gallery2?