Cookies

Discussion in 'Computer Science & Culture' started by Cottontop3000, Mar 2, 2006.

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  1. Cottontop3000 Death Beckoned Registered Senior Member

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    Hey everyone. I recently decided to check the cookies that are on my computer and found 100's. From your browser, click Tools, Options, Privacy, Cookies if you want to check yours.

    However, I don't really know what to do with them. Should I leave them? Should I clear them all? Should I leave them until they expire or until I close my browswer? I don't know enough about Cookies to know what to think of them.

    Could any of you give me any guidance? What you think of Cookies. How you deal with them. Certain settings you check or don't check. I would appreciate any help.
     
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  3. Lil Light Foot Just a fuzzy lil Fyre ball. Registered Senior Member

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    I know this won't help you, but while we're on the topic, why are they called cookies?
     
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  5. Light Registered Senior Member

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    Most of them are completely harmless, Cotton. For example, they usually keep track of your preferences as you move around a website. You'll also find that there is least one cookie set for these forums while you are here.

    I handle mine by using Spybot. It will classify all of them for you and tell you which, if any, actually pose a threat and the degree of seriousness. I may find one or two that I kick out every moth or so.

    You can also increase the security settings on your browser to the point of disabling all cookies. Check under "Tools" and find something like "Security Settings" or "Security Levels."
     
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  7. Kunax Sciforums:Reality not required Registered Senior Member

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    (cut and paste)
    Lou Montulli, currently the protocols manager in Netscape's client product division, wrote the cookies specification for Navigator 1.0, the first browser to use the technology. Montulli says there's nothing particularly amusing about the origin of the name: 'A cookie is a well-known computer science term that is used when describing an opaque piece of data held by an intermediary. The term fits the usage precisely; it's just not a well-known term outside of computer science circles.'

    Cotton: just leave then they are pretty harmless
     
  8. leopold Valued Senior Member

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    delete them

    the way i delete my cookies is by using run from the start menu

    type cookies in the dialog box then click ok

    on the window that opens select edit>select all
    press and hold control key and click on index.dat to deselect it

    you should now have all your cookies selected
    click file>delete

    cookies mainly hold your site prefrences for when you return to the site
    they also track where you have been and what you have done online

    my advice to you is to get firefox and set your prefrences to delete your cookies when you close your browser
    also get adaware, it's free, and run it at least once a day

    zone alarm is also free and it blocks everything that you don't authorize from logging onto the internet
    if you have a permenent internet connection it is a must have

    i also have tune up utilities that i use to disable/delete startup processes
     
  9. Cottontop3000 Death Beckoned Registered Senior Member

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    Thanks Kunax and Light. I use Spybot too, and I'm always getting the same spyware: fastclick.net, a few others. I thought that it might have something to do with the cookies. Mostly, it's just annoying. If I could reach out and touch these spyware makers I would. Anyone against Cookies?

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  10. Cottontop3000 Death Beckoned Registered Senior Member

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    leopold99, thank you too. I do have Firefox, and the "delete cookies when exiting Firefox" option is one I was wondering about. Do you think that deleting the cookies will slow down my browsing experience? That is, after all, what they say cookies are good for right? To speed things up. Is that true? Or just another lie?

    I also use Ad-Aware Personal SE. It, like Spypot, is free and seems to work well, though they don't work in real-time. That costs a little mula that I'm not willing to spend yet. Pretty good for free though.

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    I'll check out zone-alarm.

    So, why do you delete your cookies?
     
  11. daktaklakpak God is irrelevant! Registered Senior Member

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    If you don't like fastclick.net, add the address in IE option's privacy tab->sites button and set it to block. Same for any site that you don't want it to track your surfing behavior.
     
  12. leopold Valued Senior Member

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    i am not against their original intention
    what i am against is people being able to tell what i have done online, what programs i downloaded, how long i spent on a particular webpage
     
  13. Cottontop3000 Death Beckoned Registered Senior Member

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    Yeah, that is my main issue too. Not that I'm doing anything I really care if anyone knows about. Just the principle of the thing.
    Is there any down-side to doing this?
     
  14. leopold Valued Senior Member

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    i'm not really sure about this speed bit
    i am mostly concerned with how fast i can download a file

    i also have a linksys router/hardware firewall that blocks spam/virus's and other assorted baddies from getting to my pc
    it came as part of my upgrade to broadband
     
  15. leopold Valued Senior Member

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    there are some sites that won't allow you to do cetain things unless cookies are enabled

    fuck all of that, set firefox to delete your cookies when you close it and be done with it
     
  16. leopold Valued Senior Member

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    i have mine set to delete personal info, cookies, the whole nine yards
    the downside, if you can call it that, is google won't remember your searches
     
  17. Cottontop3000 Death Beckoned Registered Senior Member

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    I've got two firewalls. I don't know what a linksys router/hardware firewall is

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    , but I have the windows firewall active and then the broadband service provider says they use one at their end, plus something else.

    I'm glad you brought up the download speed issue. Do cookies affect that speed? My connection speed is about 10 MB/s (this may be off some), but I never get more than a 200 KB/s download speed, and it's usually more like 100 KB/s. This is too slow. Is that a service provider issue? Would deleting all the cookies help speed that up?
     
  18. Firefly Registered Senior Member

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    I know most cookies are harmless, but I've heard that doubleclick ones are particularly evil. Not sure why though.

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  19. leopold Valued Senior Member

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    no, deleting your cookies will have no effect on file downloads

    it sounds like you have a 768kbps connection
    the 10mb/s is the max speed for ethernet cards
    is that how your pc is connected to the net, by ethernet? the cable will look sorta like a phone jack on the end

    edit
    go here. it will tell you about your connection
    post your results
    http://www.testmy.net/d_load.php
     
  20. Cottontop3000 Death Beckoned Registered Senior Member

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    :::.. Download Stats ..:::
    Connection is:: 1146 Kbps about 1.1 Mbps (tested with 748 kB)
    Download Speed is:: 140 kB/s
    Bottom Line:: 20X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 7.31 sec
    Diagnosis: Awesome! 20% + : 62.78 % faster than the average for host



    :::.. Upload Stats ..:::
    Connection is:: 324 Kbps about 0.3 Mbps (tested with 579 kB)
    Upload Speed is:: 40 kB/s
    Bottom Line:: 6X faster than 56K 1MB Upload in 25.6 sec
    Diagnosis: Awesome! 20% + : 83.05 % faster than the average for host



    This is also interesting. Found it at the site you referenced leopold99. I did not know this:

    What is the difference between KB/s and Kbps, what is KB/s, what is Kbps etc. - BITS AND BYTES!!
    This is where some people get lost. KB/s or KB/sec is Kilobytes per second, Kbps is Kilobits. 1 KB/s is equal to 8.19 Kbps. You may also want to see my Conversion Table and Conversion Calculator. The correct abbreviation is for all data terms are CaSe sensitive - When you are talking about a file size Bit, Byte, Kilobyte (KB), Megabyte (MB), Gigabyte (GB) etc. etc. are correct terms - When you are talking about speed how fast a file transfers Bits per second (bps), Kilobits per second (Kbps), Megabits per second (Mbps), Gigabits per second (Gbps), Bytes per second (Bps), Kilobytes per second (KBps), Megabytes per second (MBps), Gigabytes per second (GBps) etc. etc. are correct terms... though it is also common for people to use KB/s instead of KBps when talking about Kilobytes per second because it can be easily mistaken for Kbps (Kilobits per second).

    Rule of thumb NO.1 - If you are telling someone how fast your connection is use metric or Bits per second (bps), Kilobits per second (Kbps), Megabits per second (Mbps), Gigabits per second (Gbps).
    Rule of thumb NO.2 - If you are telling someone how fast a file transferred use standard or Bytes per second (B/s), Kilobytes per second (KB/s), Megabytes per second (MB/s), Gigabytes per second (GB/s).
     
  21. Cottontop3000 Death Beckoned Registered Senior Member

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    Anyone else heard about this?
     
  22. Kunax Sciforums:Reality not required Registered Senior Member

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    paranoies is a good thing in small doses, cookies are harmless unless you seek sites which are pron to having "bad" contents or fear someone seeing where you have surfed by physicaly looking at your cookies on your computer.
     
  23. leopold Valued Senior Member

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    this is what you should be concerned about, how fast you are running in relation to your host average

    according to your stats you are running about twice as fast as your host ave.

    i have tested at this site at least 50 times and i can't get over 10% above my host ave. and here you are getting 83%
     
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