COOKIES
07/28/2000
Freemed-YiRC Beta 0.13
----------------------

- WHAT ARE COOKIES?

	Cookies are bits of Internet information stored on YOUR COMPUTER by
	web sites used for various purposes:
		Session Tracking
		Easy, No-Login consumer sites
		Activity Tracking

- WHAT ARE THEY USED FOR?
	
	As stated above, they can be used for a variety of productive and
	ingenious reasons.  Freemed-YiRC uses them for session tracking.  
	What this means is that whenever you go to a new page in Freemed-YiRC
	(or on the Internet in general), that page has no way of knowing who
	you are, or for that matter, who you were on the last page.  This
	creates a problem for those who wish to develop 'applications' for
	the web.  Applications such as shopping carts, interactive tutorials,
	and, of course, Freemed-YiRC.

- ARE COOKIES BAD?

	No and yes.  Many sites use them for legitimate purposes (i.e. for
	session tracking).  However, many OTHER sites use them to gain 
	information about people to create consumer profiles.  It is claimed
	that some of these larger companies can even give out your name,
	address, telephone number, and e-mail just by you visiting a site with
	one of their banners on them!!!  Very scary, indeed.  For most, this
	constitutes and invasion of privacy.

- WHAT CAN I DO TO PROTECT MYSELF AGAINST 'BAD' COOKIES?

	There are a few things you can do.  Since most people use either
	Netscape Navigator/Communicator or Microsoft Internet Explorer, I
	will detail how to make cookies a little bit safer here:

	Netscape Communicator:  
		Click on Edit -> Preferences.  Then click on 'Advanced'.
		On the right side of the window there should be a 'cookies'
		section.  Click on 'Accept only cookies that get sent back
		to the originating server'.  Then click OK.

		WINDOWS-ONLY:
		Close down Navigator and open up 'My Computer'.  Then you
		need to find where Netscape is located on your hard drive.
		For mose default installations, it's installed in:
		'C:\Program Files\Netscape'.  Once there, go into the 'Users'
		folder.  Most people will only have one subdirectory, usually
		labeled 'Default'.  Others may have a few directories.  There
		should be one directory per 'User Profile' in Netscape.  In
		EACH of these subdirectories you need to locate the file 
		called 'cookies.txt'.  Edit this file (using Windows Notepad)
		and DELETE ALL THE CONTENTS (i.e. make it a blank file).  It
		is OK to disregard the warning at the top of the page.  Once
		the file is empty, save it.  Now close Windows Notepad.  Right
		click on 'cookies.txt'.  Then select 'Properties'.  Select
		'Read-Only'.  Say 'OK', and you should be done!

		UNIX/LINUX-ONLY:
		Go to a text session.  For every person who uses Netscape on
		a machine, a '.netscape' directory is created in their $HOME
		directory.  Go to this directory (i.e. /root/.netscape or
		/home/bobjohnson/.netscape).  There should be a file called
		'cookies' in this directory.  Delete this file.  Then create
		a directory called 'cookies'.  Then do a 'chmod 000 cookies'
		Even if we empty this file and make it read-only, it is still
		possible to write to it.  However, if we create a directory
		'cookies' where the file should be and make THAT read-only,
		then Netscape will be unable to write to the file!

		MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER (Above 4.0, I think...):
		Go to 'Internet Options'.  Choose the 'Internet' zone.
		Click on 'Custom Level'.  In the 'cookies' section, 
		Choose the option where cookies are not stored on the computer.
		
		What these tips do is to create a somewhat safer browsing
		experience.  If you're using Netscape, and a cookie is sent to
		your computer from the server your at (i.e. if you're currently
		on Yahoo!, and the cookie is from yahoo.com) then it will be
		accepted for the duration of the session (i.e. until you quit
		Netscape).  If a cookie is sent from an advertisement (like
		Doubleclick or such...) then the cookie will NOT be accepted
		because it is not coming from Yahoo!.  This way, advertising
		companies can not profile you using Cookies.  And with the 
		Cookies file being read-only, you can be assured that this
		file will not be written to when Netscape is closed.  So,
		the next time you start Netscape, you will in effect be
		a new person.  Web sites will not have any idea what sites 
		you've visited if their relying on Cookie data.

		However, sites still have OTHER ways of monitoring you... but
		you'll have to check out some of this information for yourself!
		Be smart and learn about the dangers of the web!!!	 
		PROTECT YOURSELF.

		Now, if you're using Microsoft Internet Explorer, there are
		still MANY security problems with it.  If I were you I'd
		stop using it and switch to Netscape or something other than
		Internet Explorer.


- WILL FREEMED-YIRC ALWAYS USE COOKIES???

		NO.  When I can get the time to learn some more about PHP's
		session tracking capabilities, I will certainly do away with
		cookies and use these methods.  Until then, Freemed-YiRC will
		use cookies.  However, the source is available and you can
		check for yourself to make sure that it is not invading upon
		your privacy.


