Tech: resetting your cookies

Subject: resetting your cookies
From: GUEST,Murray MacLeod
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 07:53 PM

Ironically, this will probably appear with a "GUEST" prefix.

I just want to point out that due, (I assume) to Max's current techncal problems, at present, you can lose your cookie from one moment to the next.

So why let your deathless prose be relegated to the "GUEST " wastelamd?

Check your cookie status before you post, and if you ARE cookie-less, well, reset the bloody thing ....

Murray

Subject: RE: BS: resetting your cookies
From: Genie
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 09:03 PM

I don't know if this works on all computers, but I've discovered that if I bookmark my Personal Page or if I bookmark the Forum after I've logged in, then if I go to Mudcat via one of those bookmarks, I'm already logged in. And I can do this on mulitple computers and from multiple locations.

If I go to the Forum by just going to www.mudcat.org or via a bookmark I made when I was not logged in, not only do I have to log in each time, but if I go away from the site and return to it, I've lost my cookie.

So now, I nearly always visit Mudcat via my already-cookied bookmarks.

Genie

Subject: RE: TECH: resetting your cookies
From: Joe Offer
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 09:16 PM

This is one thing I wish I could understand. I get a corrupted cookie maybe once a year, and some people seem to have problems once a week. I think maybe you'll have fewer problems if you clear your browser cache and log in at Mudcat, and never log out.
As far as I can tell, cookie problems are almost always on the user's computer, and not at Mudcat Central.
So if you're a sloppy computer user, don't be. Do regular cleanup and maintenance on your computer, and ALWAYS shut down properly.
-Joe Offer - NOT Your Mom, although I suppose I'm nagging-

Subject: RE: TECH: resetting your cookies
From: Sorcha
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 10:51 PM

And I have never had a corrupted cookie--no matter where I enter from. Of course, I clear Temp Files and cookies every other day and re set Mudcat and Annex. Maybe that is it.

Subject: RE: TECH: resetting your cookies
From: Gypsy
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 11:12 PM

I've never had cookie problems, just have to relog once i clear my cache. mebbe i'm just lucky.

Subject: RE: TECH: resetting your cookies
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 11:17 PM

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.

Subject: RE: TECH: resetting your cookies
From: Sorcha
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 12:15 AM

Jim, your history does clear itsself according to how you have it set.......mine is set at 1 day, but you can set it for never. That doesn't explain why really old clicks still show up as visited though.

Subject: RE: TECH: resetting your cookies
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 01:03 AM

My setting for "Days to keep pages in history" is 10. Despite the name of this setting, I think it refers to the list of URLs of pages, not to the images of the pages themselves.

Has anyone else experienced the problem I described above?

Subject: RE: TECH: resetting your cookies
From: MMario
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 09:17 AM

Jim - yes - I have that problem with IE - in two different versions. The loss of history and cookies appears to be random.

Subject: RE: TECH: resetting your cookies
From: Jeri
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 09:42 AM

My problem with IE is that I lose history in the context of my back and forward buttons. If I've been on line a while, I'll just stop being able to hit them and get anywhere.

The reason: the browser cache/"Temporary Internet Files" is full. I've set MSIE to delete files when I close it. (It doesn't delete cookies, just all the HTML stuff) If the back button quits working, I dump the temp files or just close MSIE and it's fine.

This isn't the same thing as losing cookies, but it seems like it might likely be related.

Subject: RE: TECH: resetting your cookies
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 10:57 AM

When you log in on mudcat, you get a cookie, which is a plain text file that is stored on your computer. Mudcat tells your computer to "write this down and remember it."

The next time you go back to mudcat, it asks "has this person got my cookie," by looking where it expects it to be. If the cookie is found, then you can be "logged on" automatically.

If you "log off" when you leave mudcat, the cookie should be removed, or modified to show that you logged off; and you will have to manually "log on" the next time you return. If you just "go away," the cookie should show you as being logged on the next time you return. (One of the reasons you should always "exit" a secure site using the site's own exit/logoff button so that any cookie that shows you as being there legally can be "turned off." Cookies can be stolen.)

The standard location for cookies is at C:\Windows\Cookies, (or C:\WINNT\Cookies for NT based op systems like WinNT or Win2K). If you use IE and an ISP that uses generic protocols, that's where they should be; but some services feel it's necessary that they "do their own thing," so it's possible that if you use AOL or Yahoo or some other such, your ISP-program may put them somewhere else. If you frequently swap back and forth between sevices, I won't make any guesses about where you might find cookies on your machine; but they are all on your machine and if your cookie crumbles, it's because of something done on your own machine - or perhaps because the ISP-program you're using at the moment doesn't know where the previous ISP-program put it(?). Cookies are plain text files that you can look at in Notepad, Wordpad, or Word, but consist mostly of a few numerical sequences.

If you "add to favorites" in IE, a file is added at C:\Windows\Favorites. The directory tree, if you look at the "Favorites" folder in Win Explorer, replicates what you see if you look at Favorites in IE. An individual "Favorite" file contains a "display name," which you can edit in IE, the URL of the page you "bookmarked," usually the URL of the "homepage" where the individual "bookmark" lives, and a "LAST MODIFIED= ..." entry that is another of those "random number sequences." The LastMod entry is somewhat "cookie-like," but I don't know if it has sufficient info to "log you on," or if it just tells the site when you were there last - and maybe how many times you've visited.

When you visit a page, the page itself is normally downloaded to your machine - and when you scroll back and forth around that page, you are actually reading a temp file on your own machine. If you change to another page that you have visited recently, IE will look to see if the page on the web has changed, and if it has not, it may load the temporary file that is already on your machine. These temporary files are normally stored at "C:\Windows\Temporary Internet Files" and sometimes at C:\Temp. Normally, all your "cookies" from the C:\Windows\Cookies folder are replicated in ...Temp Int Files, and new "sub directories" may be created each time you open your browser.

In Windows, but offline, if you run Disk Cleanup it may offer to delete temporary internet files. Performance here is rather erratic, and it frequently leaves most of them. In IE, Tools, Internet Options, you can select "clear history," and most current history files will be cleared - although there will still be a lot of trash left behind. If you clear history, your machine will no longer remember which threads you have visited. Neither of these two cleanup methods will ordinarily delete a cookie, although they may "lose" one if the site uses a history file to find it.

If you swap ports on mudcat - say from Shorty to Ragtime, the thread i.d.s that your machine sees are different, so that threads you visited while connected to Shorty will show as not visited on Ragtime. The thread i.d. includes the root folder name, so the thread on Shorty and the same thread on Ragtime will look like two separate pages to your machine. If someone posted a link using the "full URL" format, you may not realize that it took you to one of the other mudcat ports. If you then click on the "Discussion" icon to go back to the main thread, you will stay on the new port - and all the "grayed out" history will be gone. (Which is another good reason for posting only the "relative address" within the 'cat.)

Micro$oft says that you can back up your cookies - meaning that you could keep a copy of the ones you want. You would then be able to "delete everything" and copy your good ones back. In typical fashion, Micro$oft does not actually say you can "restore" a cookie - so don't rely on this.

Note that none of the above is "verified" information, but is my own observation of what goes on when I mess around with my own very conventional plain-vanilla setup.

John

Subject: RE: TECH: resetting your cookies
From: GUEST,Coyote Breath
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 05:51 PM

OK! I guess when the power went down (I was on MC at the time) my cookie crumbled. As soon as I can figure it all out I'll try to re-do it. Thanks for the explanations all. I really WOULD like to know more about computers than I do, maybe sometime this winter, between Deer Seasons, I'll get 'round to figuring stuff out on my own.

CB