Clearing the cache in your web browser makes your browser "forget" previously viewed pages, images, CSS, javascripts, and such. Your browser then has to go back to the server and request them to get a fresh copy.
If you're developing a web site and making changes, sometimes you save something but don't see the change you made when you refresh the page. Your browser has a cached copy of that page and thinks it's the same, so to save bandwidth and time, it just shows you the cached copy it already has. Clearing the browser cache removes that copy, so the browser has to go get it fresh from the web server (and then you see your changes).
Generally (but not always) clearing your browser cache does not effect your login status (for example, being logged in to administer your web site, or logged into your web-mail).
Cookies are little "tokens" from the web server used to identify things like your user ID, or session ID, if you're logged in to the site or not, or possibly preferences like "Safe Search = ON", and such. Cookies are a way for the web site to "remember" (or reference) certain information about you. A lot of the time a cookie is just a session id with a timestamp, and the web server keeps all the other information related to that session id in a database table.
Clearing the cookies in your web browser makes your browser forget these "tokens". Without the cookies, the web site you connect to has no way to associate you with the information it has. To the web server you look like a new visitor who hasn't been there before (no stuff like userID, sessionID, or preferences, or whatever). Typically (but not always) if you were logged in to the web site, you are effectively logged out, and won't have any of the cookie-based preferences you may have set previously.
If you're developing a web site and making changes, sometimes you save something but don't see the change you made when you refresh the page. Your browser has a cached copy of that page and thinks it's the same, so to save bandwidth and time, it just shows you the cached copy it already has. Clearing the browser cache removes that copy, so the browser has to go get it fresh from the web server (and then you see your changes).
Generally (but not always) clearing your browser cache does not effect your login status (for example, being logged in to administer your web site, or logged into your web-mail).
Cookies are little "tokens" from the web server used to identify things like your user ID, or session ID, if you're logged in to the site or not, or possibly preferences like "Safe Search = ON", and such. Cookies are a way for the web site to "remember" (or reference) certain information about you. A lot of the time a cookie is just a session id with a timestamp, and the web server keeps all the other information related to that session id in a database table.
Clearing the cookies in your web browser makes your browser forget these "tokens". Without the cookies, the web site you connect to has no way to associate you with the information it has. To the web server you look like a new visitor who hasn't been there before (no stuff like userID, sessionID, or preferences, or whatever). Typically (but not always) if you were logged in to the web site, you are effectively logged out, and won't have any of the cookie-based preferences you may have set previously.
Statistics: Posted by tmikecurry — Sun Apr 28, 2024 1:22 pm