How do cookies work in a computer?

Answer 1

Cookies evolved because they solve a big problem for the people who implement Web sites. In the broadest sense, a cookie allows a site to store state information on your machine. This information lets a Web site remember what state your browser is in. An ID is one simple piece of state information -- if an ID exists on your machine, the site knows that you have visited before. The state is, "Your browser has visited the site at least one time," and the site knows your ID from that visit.
Web sites use cookies in many different ways. Here are some of the most common examples:

Sites can accurately determine how many people actually visit the site. It turns out that because of proxy servers, caching, concentrators and so on, the only way for a site to accurately count visitors is to set a cookie with a unique ID for each visitor. Using cookies, sites can determine:
How many visitors arrive
How many are new vs. repeat visitors
How often a visitor has visited
The way the site does this is by using a database. The first time a visitor arrives, the site creates a new ID in the database and sends the ID as a cookie. The next time the user comes back, the site can increment a counter associated with that ID in the database and know how many times that visitor returns.


Sites can store user preferences so that the site can look different for each visitor (often referred to as customization). For example, if you visit msn.com, it offers you the ability to "change content/layout/color." It also allows you to enter your zip code and get customized weather information.When you enter your zip code, the following name-value pair gets added to MSN's cookie file:


WEAT CC=NC%5FRaleigh%2DDurham®ION= www.msn.com/


E-commerce sites can implement things like shopping carts and "quick checkout" options. The cookie contains an ID and lets the site keep track of you as you add different things to your cart. Each item you add to your shopping cart is stored in the site's database along with your ID value. When you check out, the site knows what is in your cart by retrieving all of your selections from the database. It would be impossible to implement a convenient shopping mechanism without cookies or something like them.
In all of these examples, note that what the database is able to store is things you have selected from the site, pages you have viewed from the site, information you have given to the site in online forms, etc. All of the information is stored in the site's database, and in most cases, a cookie containing your unique ID is all that is stored on your computer

Answer 2

Basically, cookies are little bits of data sent from a website and stored by your computer/browser. They allow websites to keep track of who is whom, and also allow sessions to stay open. For instance, when you login to yahoo, it sends a cookie to your computer with your username and (if you tell it to remember your password) your password. That way, the next time you come to the yahoo page, it will automatically recognize you and you won't have to sign in again. Some other sites use cookies to store when your session on their site started (when you signed in), so that you don't have to re-enter your username and password each time you click to a different page. These are the most common uses of cookies, but cookies can really store anything, which is why some people choose to disable cookies.

Answer 3

Cookies are packets of data that websites download to your computer when you visit in order to track you better. Sometimes cookies can be malicious, and you can block those types. Most sites use cookies that can be trusted. They have their benefits as well. They can assist the log-in process on many websites as well as track your preferences. Cookies are saved in a folder in the system root. Cookie settings are completely customizable and they can be deleted at your leisure. Remember, though, everytime you visit a webpage you get a cookie. Hope this helps!

Answer 4

Cookies are nothing but normal text files stored on your computer by a site
these are read whn u visit the site next time
these might store some user preferences or some user info

Answer 5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie