More info on cookies The following notes on cookies are certainly more than you need to activate your Starpath ordering if you might have had trouble in this area, but we include this detail as it is an underlying part of Internet technology that is rather hard to learn about. In short, this detail is simply here for your own information as a service to our internet customers and visitors. Cookie options in Ver. 3 browsers Netscape 3.0 and Internet Explorer 3.0 are both configured to automatically accept all cookies — which is not the case with either of the ver 4.0 browsers. That is the default mode in 3.0 and there is no way to permanently prevent it. You can however, set a user option in each 3.0 browser that will give you a warning before accepting a cookie, and if you select to get this warning, you can then prevent the cookie, by just saying no. Without this browser option selected, you get the cookie and do not know it. Hence if you are using ver 3.0 of either browser, you are either getting the warning each time you are confronted with a cookie (which you would know for sure as this is rather a nuisance) or your ver 3.0 browser is quietly accepting all cookies To set cookie warnings in Netscape 3.0 From main menu: Options / Network preferences... select tab Protocols and check the box labeled "Show alert before accepting cookies" To set cookie warnings in Internet Explorer 3.0 From main menu: View / Options... select tab Advanced and check "Warn before accepting cookies." Cookie options in Ver. 4 browsers If you had trouble ordering with Starpath, however, you are most likely using ver 4.0 and have the accept-cookie option shut off completely (something you cannot do in 3.0). Even this though, is still likely to be rare in that both browsers are shipped with the default setting to accept cookies. Options with Internet Explorer 4.0 From main menu: View / Internet Options / Advanced... then scroll to cookies. Then choices are __ Always accept cookies __ Prompt before accepting cookies __ Disable all cookie use To order online, you must select here either (1) or (2). Options with Netscape 4.0 From main menu: Edit / preferences / Advanced ... in cookie section, The choices are __ Accept all cookies __ Accept only cookies that get sent back to the originating server __ Disable cookies __ Warn before accepting any cookie Here you must undo the Disable in order to order on line. Many users find that option (2) with the warning checked works fine for most sites. As a rule, cookies that go somewhere other than the originating server are used for marketing and other types of tracking which some users find invasive. In contrast, cookies going back only to who sent them are the ones used for online ordering, or for registering for online courses, or site access such as for commercial weather products, or to set up a purchasing account as done with some larger sites like amazon.com. Where are cookies stored in your computer? Internet Explorer writes these cookies as individual files in a directory called c:\windows\cookies. A typical one might be named [email protected]. They are also written into your c:\windows\temporary_internet_files directory as well as into one or more of its subdirectories that have names such as "2c1zhv9n" etc. The same cookie, many places, hard to find! And note the latter ones cannot be found with the Windows Explorer search function. Netscape stores cookies by adding them sequentially to a single file called cookies.txt which is stored in c:\program files\netscape\users\username. "Username" is the one you have chosen during set up. What do cookies look like? If you open a cookie in Notepad (just double click it in Windows Explorer), it would read something like: AW_ID 204.182.75.26: 1706: 952217642: 855 adobe.com/ 0 3959449088 31593672 181520800 29255825 *. The starpath cookie is much shorter than that, but you will never be able to see it since it is not permanently written on your hard drive. Note you cannot hurt anything by looking at these. If you have set up an account with some web site for an on-going course or other access for data or services, then you might have some cookies you care about, and you do not want to modify them, but if you have not set up such an account, then the cookies stored are likely just scrap. If you delete the entire file, it will just rebuild itself when the next cookie arrives. There are scarry warnings in the file "Do not edit, these are generated files," etc, but this applies only to those you might care about as just explained. Else it does not matter what you do with that file. How long do cookies last? All cookies have some expiration date when they will automatically be removed from your computer. Some last for 20 minutes, some for 20 years. The Starpath order-id cookie expires when you log off of our web site. It does not stay on your computer at all. If you have the cookie warning selected, you can read about the cookie before accepting it when using ver 4.0 browsers. Those that are designed to stay on your computer for 20 years seem a bit excessive!