Tip of the Month!

This Month's Tip:

WHAT ARE COOKIES?

Cookies are little text files that Web sites store on your computer. They are used to identify you to the sites. Cookies have a bad reputation, but it is undeserved. They keep you from having to enter the same information each time you visit a site.

Let's say you go to Amazon.com and buy a book. Amazon puts your purchase information into a database. It also sends a cookie to be stored on your computer. The cookie includes a number. When you next go to Amazon, your browser retrieves the cookie and sends it to Amazon. Amazon uses the number in the cookie to look you up in its database. It then personalizes the pages you see.

It's true that some spyware programs also use cookies. These programs track your surfing to identify your interests. They then tailor ads to suit you. They use cookies to identify you to databases online. That's irritating, but you don't want to dump all your cookies to get rid of those. Cookies are just too helpful.

Your browser allows you to control cookie traffic. In Internet Explorer, click Tools>>Internet Options>>Privacy. You'll find numerous settings there. They range from blocking all cookies to accepting all of them. To see your cookies, click the General tab, instead of Privacy. Click Settings and View Files. You can see whom the cookies are from, and delete any you don't want.

In Netscape, click Edit and Preferences. Double-click Privacy & Security, then click Cookies. You can set the browser to refuse all cookies. It also lets you see your cookies, and gives you the option of deleting them.