diff --git a/src/java/com/threerings/presents/client/BasicDirector.java b/src/java/com/threerings/presents/client/BasicDirector.java
index f22e16a76..0c93766d1 100644
--- a/src/java/com/threerings/presents/client/BasicDirector.java
+++ b/src/java/com/threerings/presents/client/BasicDirector.java
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ public class BasicDirector
     {
         // save context
         _ctx = ctx;
-        
+
         // listen for session start and end
         Client client = ctx.getClient();
         client.addClientObserver(this);
@@ -48,6 +48,9 @@ public class BasicDirector
         // if we're already logged on, fire off a call to fetch services
         if (client.isLoggedOn()) {
             if (isAvailable()) {
+                // this is a sanity check: it will fail if this post-logon initialized director
+                // claims to need service groups (it must make that known prior to logon)
+                registerServices(client);
                 fetchServices(client);
             }
             clientObjectUpdated(client);
@@ -87,7 +90,7 @@ public class BasicDirector
     {
         _availableInStandalone = available;
     }
-    
+
     /**
      * Checks whether or not this director is available in standalone mode (defaults to false).
      */
@@ -95,7 +98,7 @@ public class BasicDirector
     {
         return _availableInStandalone;
     }
-    
+
     /**
      * Checks whether this director is available in the current mode.
      */
@@ -103,7 +106,7 @@ public class BasicDirector
     {
         return isAvailableInStandalone() || !_ctx.getClient().isStandalone();
     }
-    
+
     /**
      * If this director is not currently available, throws a {@link RuntimeException}.
      */
@@ -114,7 +117,7 @@ public class BasicDirector
                 " not available in standalone mode!");
         }
     }
-    
+
     /**
      * Called in three circumstances: when a director is created and we've already logged on; when
      * we first log on and when the client object changes after we've already logged on.
@@ -144,7 +147,7 @@ public class BasicDirector
 
     /** The application context. */
     protected PresentsContext _ctx;
-    
+
     /** Whether or not this director is available in standalone mode. */
     protected boolean _availableInStandalone;
 }
diff --git a/src/java/com/threerings/presents/client/Client.java b/src/java/com/threerings/presents/client/Client.java
index b6dde2f06..7daeb1a12 100644
--- a/src/java/com/threerings/presents/client/Client.java
+++ b/src/java/com/threerings/presents/client/Client.java
@@ -266,6 +266,9 @@ public class Client
      */
     public void addServiceGroup (String group)
     {
+        if (isLoggedOn()) {
+            throw new IllegalStateException("Service groups must be registered prior to logon.");
+        }
         _bootGroups.add(group);
     }
 
@@ -564,7 +567,7 @@ public class Client
         notifyObservers(CLIENT_OBJECT_CHANGED, null);
     }
 
-    boolean notifyObservers (int code, Exception cause)
+    protected boolean notifyObservers (int code, Exception cause)
     {
         final Notifier noty = new Notifier(code, cause);
         Runnable unit = new Runnable() {
@@ -575,10 +578,10 @@ public class Client
             }
         };
 
-        // we need to run immediately if this is WILL_LOGOFF or if we have no RunQueue (which
-        // currently only happens in some really obscure circumstances where we're using a Client
-        // instance on the server so that we can sort of pretend to be a real client)
-        if (code == CLIENT_WILL_LOGOFF || _runQueue == null) {
+        // we need to run immediately if this is WILL_LOGON, WILL_LOGOFF or if we have no RunQueue
+        // (which currently only happens in some really obscure circumstances where we're using a
+        // Client instance on the server so that we can sort of pretend to be a real client)
+        if (code == CLIENT_WILL_LOGON || code == CLIENT_WILL_LOGOFF || _runQueue == null) {
             unit.run();
             return noty.getRejected();
 
@@ -590,7 +593,7 @@ public class Client
         }
     }
 
-    synchronized void cleanup (final Exception logonError)
+    protected synchronized void cleanup (final Exception logonError)
     {
         // we know that prior to the call to this method, the observers were notified with
         // CLIENT_DID_LOGOFF; that may not have been invoked yet, so we don't want to clear out our
@@ -625,7 +628,7 @@ public class Client
      * Called when we receive a pong packet. We may be in the process of calculating the client/
      * server time differential, or we may have already done that at which point we ignore pongs.
      */
-    void gotPong (PongResponse pong)
+    protected void gotPong (PongResponse pong)
     {
         // if we're not currently calculating our delta, then we can throw away the pong
         if (_dcalc != null) {