PC Tips...
Internet cookies are not in any way similar to those that Cookie Monster loves, hordes, and devours. They are, instead, a means of identifying and surveying folk's for their e-mail address and for what they do on the internet and on their computers.
I do not use cookies in any fashion, and therefore do not understand them completely. Like many other things I do not use, I only have enough understanding about them to dislike their use. I understand enough to know that cookies are more of a nuisance than they are the simple advertising mechanism they are promoted to be.
Why am I down on cookies? The simple ones add a signature to and search through a browser's cookie text file (cookie.txt in Netscape) to see where you have collected cookies from. This is done to tailor the e-mail announcements or advertisements you will eventually be getting from that site, and to sell the information to other businesses. Others are much more intrusive.
Freebie Cookies:
No advertisements, cookies, add-banners, or other stuff that comes along with "freebies" will be on my pages. These are not free, they cost your site's visitors and you by all involved having to wade through a lot of unsolicited advertisement e-mail, and by defeating any privacy on your system. For my pages, a free 5-20mb site with an add-banner on it is OK, but the intrusive cookie is not. A free counter is OK, but the cookie is not. A free linking add-banner is OK, but the cookie is not. There are other "freebies" with other cookies. I have found several sites with as many as six cookies.
Mom told me there was nothing free except our spirits. I believe my mom.
Money Making Cookies:
Some cookies on personal sites do not come with a freebie, the site's webmistress or webmaster simply agrees to use them and then makes a few pennies every time the site is visited and a cookie is accepted. This arrangement sometimes pays for the site, but is seldom actually profitable. All of the cookies explain (in an alert pop-up box) that the information will be sent to servers in "any domain" (for as long as thirty years), or "only back to itself".
Many folks advertise their personal sites through e-mail spam, link exchanges, and search engines just to attract folks who don't know about cookies and who therefore accept them by default. These folks usually don't want anything to do with the advertisers or their products. This doesn't, however, do the advertisers any harm, since some of those folks will eventually respond in one way or another to the e-mail spam they receive.
Many of the folks who use the money making cookies also make money for each piece of advertisement e-mail they send out (spam) in bulk to their address list. That's why you get e-mail from so many folks you don't know.
From what I've seen and had explained to me, if you respond to an e-mail spam by writing to someone and doing what they say to do to be taken off their mailing list, your address is taken off their list and forgotten, or placed on a permanent list for more mailings. I responded to one of the first spams by writing back (as instructed) and saying I didn't want to be on their list. That mail was returned unsent, since the "off-list" address was bogus. I kept receiving the spam for quite a while.
The best responce to junk e-mail from unknown sources is to delete it. If junk mail comes in from a notable business, they will usually take you off their lists if properly requested.
Business Cookies:
I use Simply 3D 3.1, a software by Micrografx. When I surf through the Micrografx web site, I get cookie alerts on some of their pages. The alert box explains that the cookies will only be sent back to Micrografx (not "any domain"). Since I do business with Micrografx, I want them to know who I am, and therefore I accept their cookies. I also receive e-mail from Micrografx now and then.
Sometimes I make simple edits to my pages on-line and have to go to a secure area that only my provider and I are allowed into. For me to get there, my provider offers two cookies that are sent back to itself to make sure I'm me. By accepting these two cookies I'm allowed into the area where I can alter my pages.
Other business cookies go much farther. Microsoft has been accused of sending cookies through our machines searching for what software we use. Even though my browser is set up to alert me when a normal cookie tries to do a search (so that I can deny access), I still get secret intrusive cookies which are placed in my Windows 95 "Temporary Internet Files" directory, and in my Temp directory.
Cookie Programs: Lately I found a cookie program from Geocities, and one from Xoom in my Windows 95 Temporary Internet Files directory, which gave my machine a set of ID numbers. When I clicked on those files (which look like web addresses) nothing happened. After dragging them into Notepad+, they were exposed as ID numbers. These were not detected by my browser's cookie alert, and I would have denied them if they had been detected. The reason they are there is because I visited friend's sites who use the "free" services and had them forced onto my machine. Some home-page providers such as Tripod.com put cookie IDs in a Temporary Internet Files directory only when one accepts their cookie in the first place.
You can't delete the Geo-Cities file in the Windows 95 Temporary Internet Files directory, since it is a program and not really a file. When I tried to delete it, the error message I recieved from Windows 95 indicated the program would remain active until six months from now. It isn't a file, but instead a program that is encoded to not be recognized if you try to delete them with Explorer. If you know how to use file manager then you can use it to delete the Temporary Internet Files directory, and thereby get rid of the main geocities program, the cache directories (yes directories) inside it, and the files within the cache directories.
It offends me that a site would load cookie programs on our machines that resist deletion and hide files from us?!? Worse, not completing this process seems to be the reason Communicator crashes (see "The Crashing Cookie" below). GRRRRRRR!!!!!
The Mysterious Out-of-Nowhere Cookies:
I still haven't figured out why two temporary (.tmp) files that were in my Windows 95 Temp directory exist (or where they came from). I'm certain they were placed like cookies. Both include characters depicting the first lines of my home page, like someone is including my site in a search engine. I'll add more here later when I find out.
The Persistent Cookie:
Have you been to Disney's site lately? If you have, then you accepted their cookie. With cookie alerts (see below) on, you find that Disney offers a cookie that will be sent to any domain, and if canceled, it will be offered again in an instant. This in essence traps folks who have cookie alerts on, since they are not giving them enough time to leave by hitting the back button.
Persistent cookies can be defeated in one of two ways if you are using cookie alerts. You can use your arrow key to highlight cancel, put your mouse arrow on the x in the upper right corner of your browser, and then sequentually and quickly hit your "enter" button and the left mouse button and your Netscape session will end. If this tends to be too much of a chore, turn your computer off. On rebooting, Scan Disk will ask if you wish to save or delete a file that it retrieved. Unless you were working on something else while you were surfing, just delete the file and go on.
The Timed Cookie:
Microwings has come up with a new cookie, well, new for me. If you don't accept their cookie, then a request for you to accept it comes back every ten seconds or so. Keep in mind Microwings begs and almost tells a person they should be a member. To add to the frustration, they also make their frames persistant through any site you venture to through their links!
The Crashing Cookie:
After starting to use Netscape Communicator, I noticed several sites would crash Netscape, and I have finally figured out why. It's because of the browser-taxing combination of the site loading Java Scripts (automaticly playing a midi file for instance) while the Geocities server was trying to load a Cookie Program. What to do? Use a different browser (I use Netscape 3.0), accept the cookie, or don't go back. Another solution, the one I use with Communicater, is to not load a midi plug in. This way the automatic midi load does not play. For those of you who embed midis to automatically being loaded, we don't hear it (see using midis).
The Bottom Lines:
1. I will not reward my visitors with advertisements and cookies which lead to more advertisements through e-mail (or worse). These visitors are smart enough to find products they wish to buy, and also get enough advertisements through the folks who insist cookies are not a problem.
2. My awards will not be granted to sites that offer cookies that can't be denied.
Cookie Alerts:
If you wish to decide whether or not you will accept a cookie when approached by a site with one, you may have the ability to set your browser up for cookie alerts. Although I have found a way to do this with Netscape 3.0 and 4.0, I have not found out how with Netscape 2.01 (I use the latter at work). If you look in your browser's help files or manual, you may be able to find a means of being alerted to incoming cookies.
In Netscape 3.0 one can take these steps to be alerted about cookies. Click on "Options", click on "Network Preferences", click on "Protocols", and then make sure the box in front of "Accepting all Cookies" and in front of "Warn me before accepting a cookie..." is checked. From then on you will have the option of accepting a cookie or not. The pop-up box will tell you what kind of cookie it is, and give you the option of "OK", or "Cancel". Click on "OK" to accept the cookie, or click on "Cancel" to deny them.
In Netscape Communicator one can click on Edit in the menu bar, then on preferences, then on advanced, and then make sure a check mark is next to the bottom line that indicates you will be warned about cookies. This will give you the option of accepting them with the option of "OK", or denying them with "Cancel".
Special Note: Using Cookie alerts turned into an amusement the closer we got to the year 2000 AD. For instance, one said, "...will be sent to any server on this domain and will persist through December 28, 1969. Get it? 1969!!! Xerox wasn't even finished building the first PC until 1970. Steve Jobs had not seen it till 1970 either!
Cleaning Up:
If you open your cookie.txt file with Notepad, you will find a statement that indicates you should not modify the file. Actually, it's the first cookies you should not modify. These are the identification cookies your provider and browser program gave you.
Copy your cookie.txt file onto a floppy disk for security. This way you can modify your cookie text file, and replace the modified cookie.txt file later if you modified it too much. You can delete all of the cookies except the very first ones which were placed by your provider and the browser program (they should be obvious). If you delete cookies that you want, (like the ones I mentioned by Micrografx), then you'll be offered these the next time you visit the respective sites.