Colin, That was an interesting piece of information. Their usefulness is without question, but of course this can become a tool for others to track you - "big brother"! Think I'll stick to the "cookie jar" myself! -- Carol carol.pearson@xxxxxxxxxxxx -----Original Message----- From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of chairman@xxxxxxxxx Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2005 8:26 PM To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [access-uk] Re: Removing cookies Greetings, Thanks for the assistance given, I received a private message which I believe contains information I seek, the message, minus the internet lines, is pasted below the line of asterisks. ***************************** Viewing cookie information before removing: KAREN'S POWER TOOLS NEWSLETTER To subscribe to this newsletter, visit: http://www.karenware.com/subscribe/ or send a message from the email account where you'd like to receive the newsletter to: subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Karen's Power Tools are now available on CD! To learn all about it, and securely order online, visit: http://www.karenware.com/cd.asp August 4, 2005 By Karen Kenworthy Read the Web version of Power Tools online! http://www.karenware.com/newsletters/2005/2005-08-04.asp IN THIS ISSUE * Cookie Ingredients * All of Karen's "Power Tools" Recently, I wrote about new versions of my Cookie Viewer program. At the end of each discussion, I said there was more to say about each tool. But time ran out, and those talks had to wait until another time. Well, that time is now. :) Cookie Ingredients A few weeks ago, when we met the newest version of the Cookie Viewer, we were reminded of the important role cookies perform in making the modern web possible. Cookies -- tiny files stored on our computers -- hold the memories of web sites we've visited. They may remind web sites who we are, what we did during out last visit, and what we're trying to accomplish during our current visit. These bits of data make possible such conveniences as automatic logins and shopping carts. We saw how the new Cookie Viewer can automatically search our disk drives, looking for cookies stored by most popular web browsers. These browsers include Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Netscape's Navigator, and Mozilla's FireFox. We also chatted a bit about how my program displays each cookie's content, and can delete selected cookies. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to look closely at the ingredients that make up these mysterious web browser cookies. So if you've got a minute, take off your shoes, have a seat on the sofa, and make yourself comfortable ... Let's start with the two most important cookie parts: Keys and Values. The Cookie Viewer displays these cookie components beneath tabs appearing on the program's main window. All cookies contain at least one "Key". It's a short name, chosen by the web server that ordered the cookie. It identifies the data stored in the cookie. For every key, you'll find a corresponding "Value". As you've guessed, the value is the cookie's nugget of data. Cookie keys and values always come in pairs. For example, a cookie which holds your login credentials for a particular web site might contain these two pairs: Key 1: USERNAME Value 1: MyLoginName Key 2: PASSWORD Value 2: MySecretPassword When you visit the site that created this cookie, its two Key/Value pairs are automatically sent to the site, allowing you to bypass the usually login procedure. Besides one or more Key/Value pairs, cookies contain other important bits. For example, like cookies we buy at a store, all web browser cookies have an expiration date. After this date, both types of cookies are stale, and should be discarded (unless you're really hungry). Naturally, the Cookie Viewer reveals each cookie's expiration date. But it also discloses how many days, hours, minutes and seconds the cookie has left to live (its lifetime). If the cookie was stored by Microsoft's Internet Explorer (MSIE), the program also shows the date and time each cookie was created. Unfortunately, because of the way they store cookies, this information is not available for cookies baked by Netscape's Navigator or Mozilla's FireFox browsers. :( However, those two browsers do record (and the Cookie Viewer displays) one bit of information that MSIE does not. It's called "Scope", and it determines which web servers can see the cookie's contents. Suppose a web server named www.microsoft.com creates a cookie that's stored on your computer by Netscape's Navigator browser. If that cookie's Scope is "Host", only that one web server can later discover the cookie's data. But if the cookie's scope is "Domain", servers that are closely related to the original server are allowed to see this cookie too. To qualify, the right-most portions of all server names must match exactly. Only the left-most portion of each name, up to the first period, can differ. For example, a server named store.microsoft.com would be allowed to peek inside a "Domain" cookie created by a server named www.microsoft.com. That's because the names of both servers end with "microsoft.com". But even with a "Domain" scope, a cookie created by <http://www.microsoft.com> www.microsoft.com would still be off-limits to servers with names like <http://www.anothercompany.com> www.anothercompany.com. Their names are just too different. The last bit of data found in each web browser cookie is the cookie's "Secure" setting. If this is "Yes", the cookie's keys and values can only be transmitted across encrypted network connections. If the "Secure" setting is "No", the cookie contains no sensitive data, and can be sent along ordinary unencrypted routes. Discover the information that web sites store on your computer. This Power Tool automatically scans your computer, looking for "cookies" created by Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Netscape's Navigator and Mozilla Project's FireFox web browsers. It can then display the data stored in each one. It can also delete any unwanted cookies stored by these browsers. Karen's Cookie Viewer v3.5.6 Download and run to install Cookie Viewer 865,216 bytes <http://www.karenware.com/progs/ptcookie-setup.exe> http://www.karenware.com/progs/ptcookie-setup.exe All the best from: Colin R. Howard. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.338 / Virus Database: 267.10.12/75 - Release Date: 17/08/05 ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.338 / Virus Database: 267.10.10/73 - Release Date: 15/08/2005 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.338 / Virus Database: 267.10.10/73 - Release Date: 15/08/2005 ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq