I used to use Netscape at work and I never had a problem with my cookie. When I used CompuServe at home (CS has its own web browser) I never had any problem with my cookie. A couple of months ago I switched over to using Microsoft Internet Explorer (due to a change in ISP) and since then I've been losing my cookie about once a week.

Another strange thing happens sometimes, and I think it may be connected with losing my cookie. IE seems to lose its history. You know how a link changes color after you've clicked it? Well, I pay close attention to the color of links because I am always following links from one thread to another as I hunt for lyrics. I rely on the color change to help me keep track of which threads I have already looked at and which ones I haven't.

Some days when I start up my browser, I notice that all the links that I KNOW I have used recently are colored bright blue when they should be pale gray. Yet there will be SOME gray links, and those are ones I used a long time ago. So I'll go ahead, using my browser the normal way, clicking various links, and then a few days later, and find the colors have reversed themselves again. Some that ought to be blue are gray, and vice versa.

What I think is happening is this. The browser keeps a history file of all the URLs of all the pages I have looked at in the last x days. Every time I bring up a page, my browser compares all the links on that page to its history file, and if it finds a match, it sets the color of that link to gray. Otherwise it's blue. That much is normal. But I think my browser must have at least 2 different places where it keeps history files. Somehow, some setting is getting changed, which causes it to pick up the file from a different place. So it picks up an old, out-of-date file instead of the one that was most recently updated. Then it updates that one for a while, and then something causes it to switch back.

I never had this problem either when I used other browsers. And I do always try to practice good hygiene with my hard drive (so to speak). I always try to shut down properly, except once in awhile something causes the whole computer to freeze up solid and I have no choice but to power off and reboot. I suspect that some of the games my son plays on the computer have something to do with this, but I'm not sure.