IE6 is eating my cookies

[cfreak]

Okay I have no idea how to fix this problem, searching here and searching Google produced nothing in the way of help.

Here's the problem: I have two sites that use cookies to track a session ID that tracks people in a catalog area. Its not an e-commerce thing just allows people to email a list of products they are interested in just by clicking on them in the catalog.

For some unknown reason our client who we built the site for cannot seem to accept the cookie. They are using IE version 6.0. We have machines here that run that as well and they work fine. I read in several places about the default privacy settings in IE causing problems with cookies however the client machine that has the problem has their settings at the lowest point and some machines here have them on medium and it still works.

I'm using the normal CGI cookie routines, has anyone else heard of this problem???

Lobster Aliens Are attacking the world!

[d4vis]

Cookies can be handled seperately in IE6, rather than wrapped into the security zones (as they were in IE5).
You might check Tools-->Internet_Options-->Privacy-->Advanced.
There are settings there for handling Third Party and First Party cookies, overriding default cookie behavior and allowing all session cookies.
Perhaps they've overriden the default settings?

Update:
you might find some good information in this thread.

~monk d4vis
#!/usr/bin/fnord

[cfreak]

The settings were at default and then we changed them to be the lowest. They didn't even know the settings existed so no nothing is set weird in that area. I might also mention its 2 machines and the behavior is the same on both.

Lobster Aliens Are attacking the world!

[Fastolfe]

IE 6 honors the new P3P privacy standard. If you are loading a web page and this web page refers to an image or some other resource on another web site, and that other web site attempts to set a cookie, IE will by default reject this cookie unless that other site has a P3P privacy policy.

I don't know if that's the problem here or not, but it's a new thing with IE6 that wouldn't affect Netscape.

Without knowing more, I'm not sure we can nail down the problem specifically.

[cfreak]

yes I read about this, unfortunatly its not the problem since that only affects 3rd party cookies. This cookie is being set by the website itself. Also its only affecting some installations and not others. I'm sure its something else on their network or machines but my boss doesn't see it that way and has told me I must find a solution. I'm hoping that someone has had a similar experience.
Lobster Aliens Are attacking the world!

[Fastolfe]

An easy way to tell for sure would be to look at the status bar of the IE 6 browser. At the bottom towards the right there would be an "eye" icon with an exclamation point (or something similar) indicating privacy measures were taken with that site. You should be able to get details by clicking on it.

If that isn't it, I have no ideas. If these are stock IE 6 browsers, and they're getting the page to come up OK, and the cookie isn't being generated from a different web site name (doesn't have to be 3rd-party like on a different domain, just a different system), I have no explanation. I have never seen that before.

I might suggest you get some low-level debugging in there logging what cookies it's sending to the browser and recording what the browser sends back. The hostnames of the systems they're using might be nice, just to verify.

I suspect one of your assumptions may be faulty here. Test them all.

[schumi]

Additionally to what d4vis mentioned, you can allow certain websites to use cookies regardless of their privacy policy (and also block them). To do this, go to Tools-->Internet_Options-->Privacy. At the bottom you'll find a box called "Web sites", with a button "Edit". There you can enter the address of that site and hit "Allow".

Having said this, if there is a problem with those cookies and IE6, don't you think the client's customers clicking through that catalogue in IE6 will possibly run into the same problem? And thus changing settings on your client's machine will help him, but not them?

--cs

There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls. - George Carlin

[cfreak]

Well I'm sure someone is experiancing it but I need to figure out why. So far this is the only two installations we've found that have had the problem (and unfortunatly they are with the client), several people in my office use IE 6 with the privacy setting on medium and no sites in the advanced settings and the catalog works just fine. So the whole thing really doesn't make any sense.

Lobster Aliens Are attacking the world!

[cfreak]

I can't seem to update my main text.
I forgot to mention that we installed Netscape on the same machine that has the problem and it works just fine.
Lobster Aliens Are attacking the world!

[Marza]

Not too Perlish but does the client have a firewall(ie zonealarms) or some ad blockers? They will prevent cookies. Does the client also run ad-aware?

Other than that. Make sure the client has all the patches for IE6. Most of my machines have it and do not see the problem you describe.

Finally for W2K/NT/ETC issues. Sunbelt Software runs an NT Admin list that is really good for getting help. Take a look at:

www.w2knews.com

[cfreak]

No they aren't running any of that. (I wish because that would make the problem a lot easier to solve!)

Lobster Aliens Are attacking the world!