Computer Cookies:
Help or Hindrance?

Cookies were first introduced by Netscape to enable a server to store client-specific information on the client's machine and then use that information when a server or particular page is accessed again by the client. The cookie mechanism allows servers to personalize pages for each client, or remember selections the client has made when browsing through various pages of a site, without having to use complicated programming on the server's side.

The first time you visit a site or page, a cookie is created. A server program will look for previous cookie information in your browser's request, and if there isn't any, will send a response to your browser containing a "set-cookie" header. This header requests that the cookie-enabled browser (Netscape and IE3x and above) add this information to its "cookies" file. From then on all requests to that URL from your browser will include the cookie information as an extra header in the request.

That doesn't sound so bad, does it? So why worry about cookies?

Aunty will tell you why!