What is a Cookie?
A cookie is a piece of information in the form of a very small text file that is placed on an internet user's hard drive. It is generated by a web page server, which is basically the computer that operates a web site.
The information the cookie contains is set by the server and it can be used by that server whenever the user visits the site. A cookie can be thought of as an internet user's identification card, which tell a web site when the user has returned.
What does a cookie look like?
Below is the content of a typical cookie. This one is from the Hotmail service and has the filename jss@hotmail.msn.txt (.txt is the standard filename extension for text files):
HMP1 1 hotmail.msn.com/ 0 1715191808
32107852 1236821008 29449527 *
The codes will only make sense to Microsoft's MSN Hotmail servers etc.
Visit the AboutCookies website here: www.aboutcookies.org
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