'Last Hour'

P.S. I think it's all to do with your 'cookies' question............

There is something odd happening with this page! A tech issue.

No strange page for last hour. I clicked on acepting cookies.

I think the cookies were the problem, they should have been cupcakes!

Which reminds me, when are we getting a cookie emoticon?

Sorry! Couldn't resist [cookie-munching grin]

WTF are cookies?

Good question Greatnan, I tried to pretend I knew [blush]

I clicked on the heading ...re-accepting cookies ...but yes Greatnan, recognise the term but don't understand the concept either!!

Can a techno GNetter explain please!! [in words of one syllable]emoticon [blush]

I have left a message on cookies thread as they didn't know about this thread and an explanation! Clear? Well I have to go and get on the WI float to deliver their torch to the next village now. So be back....and hope sorted before next weekend! phew.... Previous village is arriving as land army on a tractor we are leaving on flat bed farm truck as synchronised (codger) swimmers and to be greeted by 'strawberries' in following village. May put video on utube...just to show what grans are made of?

From what I understand, cookies follow your usage of your computer so that adverts can be targetted by people who sell what you have recently looked at. I've been looking for a dress for our youngest daughter's wedding party recently and have seen loads of adverts on my computer for dresses. Unfortunately the sellers have not spotted that I'm 63, fairly conservative in my dress and rather too large for some of the things that keep appearing!

Someone else will say if that isn't correct, I'm sure!

Cookies are little messages that some sites leave on your computer when you view pages. They have stuff in them which lets the site recognise you when you return another day. In GNs case they must be references to your log-in details, because sites do not keep all that log-in stuff themselves (not enough space for everyone's details)

You can set your browser to either accept all cookies, only keep them for a day, accept none, or ask you each time whether to keep each one. And you can make exceptions for certain sites if you get fed up being asked every time you visit a new site.

snap, kitty

I think they were called cookies because they were little unexpected "gifts"

If you use Firefox, you can set your policy on cookies by going to "Options" on the menu bar, then to "History" and then in the "Firefox will....." bit, choose what you want to happen about cookies. I can't help you with IE, but it will have some way of being in charge.

Third party cookies (one of the choices) are cookies that come, not from the site you are looking at, but from an associated site.

What I do is to accept cookies for a day, except for sites that I have specified and know that I want to have logging me in or sending me adverts.

Mine's a white chocolate chip cookie please.

But GN has always remembered my login details - how did they do that without cookies? [extremely confused emoticon!]

Pass

Don't try Anagram............ (not worth the trouble [grin])

If you can view your cookies, you will probably find hundreds of them, from sites you never knew existed.

Gransnet probably already had one on your computer but this legislation had stirred everything up.

Is this why I keep getting a message when I first log into my computer about disabling cookies and so speed up my downlaods?? [confused]

I've never done anything about it ... as never downloaded any cookies ...now seems I've got them without knowing [blush] [idiot] emoticon

You don't need to download them, Jacey they download themselves.

To be fair, they are useful when you are on the site as they facilitate the way the data goes back and forward from site to you to site (don't ask the technical details, because I am a little shaky on that. I just know that the computer their end has to know that you have received one chunk before it can send you the next) but of course all the webmasters are onto the bandwagon and drop several cookies onto you whether they are needed or not. A lot of them are from associated advertising sites which report back statistics on site usage.

They have a "sell-by date " when they expire, but some of these dates are years ahead - not necessary! Mostly, they are only needed for that session on the net.

I just checked, I did have cookies from Gransnet, Mumsnet and mumsnet ads so you probably do too.

Thanks for the info Elegran ...but do they slow down the speed of my computer if I've got swarms of them hiding in the system?? [shock]

How do I know which to keep and which to swot??? [hmm]