Description of Persistent and Per-Session Cookies in Internet Explorer

• Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 4.0, 4.01, 4.01 Service Pack 1, 4.01 Service Pack 2, 5 for Windows 95
• Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 4.01 Service Pack 2, 5 for Windows 98
• Microsoft Windows 98
• Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 4.0, 4.01, 4.01 Service Pack 1, 4.01 Service Pack 2, 5 for Windows NT 4.0

SUMMARY

Internet Explorer 5 provides separate security controls for persistent cookies and for per-session cookies. A cookie is a method for a Web server to maintain state information about users as users navigate different pages on the site, and as users return to the site at a later time.

MORE INFORMATION

Persistent cookies are stored for a length of time that is set by the Web server when it passes the cookie to Internet Explorer. These cookies are used to store state information between visits to a site.

Per-session cookies are used to store state information only within a session. These cookies are cached only while a user is visiting the Web server issuing the per-session cookie and are deleted from the cache when the user closes the session.

Per-session cookies are frequently used by Active Server Pages (ASP) running on Microsoft Internet Information Server 3.0 or later. These cookies store session information as the user navigates to multiple ASP pages in a site.

REFERENCES

Cookies are defined in RFC 2109, "HTTP State Management Mechanism." RFCs can be found online at the following Web site:

http://www.rfc-editor.org

Additional query words:

Keywords          : msiew95 msient win98 msiew98 
Version           : WINDOWS:4.0,4.01,4.01 Service Pack 1,4.01 Service Pack 2,5
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbinfo 

Last Reviewed: April 3, 1999