Re: sweets

Paul Burchard (burchard@CS.Princeton.EDU)
Tue, 28 Jan 1997 22:00:35 -0500


Elaine, that's basically all correct. In answer to Anne's problem,
basically that server is using the "cookie" as a way to track her
through the site, including on repeat visits -- without the cookie
information (essentially saying "I am visitor #23423") being passed
back and forth, the server wouldn't be able to tell Anne from the
perhaps 1000's of other people that visit from aol.com or netcom.com
or wherever she's connecting from.

The reason it keeps on asking is just that the server has been
programmed to ask any "new" visitor's browser to set the cookie
for future tracking. But the way it "knows" you're "new" is that
you don'
t have a cookie yet. So when you reject the cookie, every time
your browser tries to get another image or document from the server,
the server keeps saying, "Dang! Another new visitor from annes.machine.edu!
Where do they keep coming from? Oh, and how about a cookie?" It's
just too simpleminded to give up.

PB