A guide by Billy Eakkachaichanvet to the sweet and chewy.
Note: This guide is meant as a rehash and addition to the Enable Cookies tutorial.
The BIG Predicament
I often find myself stuck on those sites where it says 'Remember your login (cookies must be enabled)' or 'If you see this ad page more than once, please enable cookies.' or even 'You are about to submit a bank transaction, please disable cookies and clear your cache and history afterwards.' What good do these messages do without knowing how to mess with cookies. Well I'm going to teach you how to turn them on, and also turn them off, and a few things you can do in between.
What are Cookies?
A cookie is a grain/other foods group product, consisting of a baked drop batter of egg and flour in a 1:2 ratio. Margarine is also added, to trap in air into sugar crystals through a prosses called 'creaming', thus, with the addition of baking soda, the product will rise and flatten out, forming a golden brown yet stiff disc-shaped product
Seriously, what are Cookies?
A cookie is a way for websites to store data between browser sessions. Let me explain, a browser session is started when you open your web browser (hopefully Firefox), and ends when you close it. Websites often save data to your computer in the form of cookies so that when you open up your browser again, all is not lost, and a website will simply load your cookie and you will still be logged in, etc.
OK, how do I fiddle with them?
It's simple really, go to…
- 'Tools > Options (or Edit > Preferences for non-Windows).
- Then select 'Privacy' and go to the 'Cookies' tab.
How do I enable/disable Cookies?
The first thing you should see is the 'Allow Sites to Set Cookies' checkbox. Its a matter of unchecking it to disable cookies, and checking it to enable. Its ON by default.
What other options should I fiddle with?
I recommend you select 'for originating site only' (if cookies are enabled). Usually any other type of cookie you get that's not from the original site will be tracking cookies. Those are the naughty kinds of cookies that could spy on you and send your surfing info back to the cookie setter. If you already have any of those cookies, I suggest getting Ad-Aware (its free) to remove them, then come back here to continue.
I don't want every site to be able to set Cookies!
If you regularly use banking sites or send private info using your web browser, you might want to set the sites you exchange this info with as "exceptions".
- Click the 'Excpetions' button next to 'Allow Sites to Set Cookies' .
- Type or copy and paste the site URL into the text field labeled 'Address of web site:' (not into the list)
- Click 'Block'.
On the other hand if you're getting annoyed because the same site you go to is completely safe but Firefox keeps beeping at you that it's untrusted, repeat the process but click 'Allow' instead of 'Block'.
I want cookies gone after I close Firefox, for security, OR I have multiple people using my computer.
The solution is this my friend:
- Click on the drop-down list labeled 'Keep Cookies:'
- Select 'until I close Firefox'.
This will wipe all cookies when you close Firefox, leaving your computer free of potentially hackable passwords and usernames as well as tracking cookies. A downside is that you have to log in too everything when you open Firefox again, and also some games use cookies to save progress. It's different from completely disabling cookies, because websites can still remember you until you end your session.
I've just done a private exchange! I want to delete the Cookie.
- Click the 'View Cookies' button and find the site that set the cookie.
- Click the 'Remove Cookie' button. Or if you aren't sure what site it was, and you're willing to sacrifice all of your cookies, click 'Remove All Cookies'.
And so ends the cookie FAQ, this is billyea, signing off.
keep it up.
marko