In your admin panel under setttings -> system configuration, you have a set of options for configuring cookies. Cookies are small files stored on the visitor's computer (including yours) which contain the login information, so that users can stay logged in across multiple pages.

The first option is "path". It's best to leave this blank if you're unsure, as it will function correctly when blank. However, this can be useful if you have multiple installations on the same site. If you need to restrict a cookie to only one directory (yoursite.com/links/ for example) and prevent the cookie from being used by another directory (such as yoursite.com/otherlinks/), type in the post-domain part as the path. /links/ and /otherlinks/ would be the cookie paths in the two example directories mentioned.

Next, you can restrict the domain. Don't worry that this being blank means other domains can read your cookies -- it doesn't. This setting is actually for subdomains. If your directory is at http://links.yoursite.com , then the cookie will only be available in pages starting with links.yoursite.com... they won't be available at www.yoursite.com. If for some reason you need the cookie to be accessed globally across your site, supply the domain .yoursite.com (note the two dots) to tell it that all subdomains should be allowed.

The default duration option controls how long most cookies last. (Exceptions are voting cookies and link hits cookies for which the expiration times are specified elsewhere in the settings area.) For example, this will control how long you remain logged in after you login to your directory. If this value were set to 86400, then you would be forced to login again once every day (there are 86400 seconds in a day).

Next, you can set a privacy policy. Cookie privacy policies allow the user to click a spot in their browser (lower right in MSIE) to see how you're using their info. This is basically useless, but Internet Explorer 6's default security settings require that cookies must have a privacy policy. Thus in order to make sure your users can login you'll need something in this field. Fortunately, IE 6 doesn't actually check to see that the policy is valid... only that there is a URL. Thus, you can leave a dummy URL there like www.somesite.com/w3c/p3p.xml and it will serve the purpose of ensuring that all your Internet Explorer users can login.

Finally you can change the cookie names. This is useful if you want to have multiple WSN installs sharing the same cookie path without integrating their member systems.


If you have login problems when using multiple WSN installations, please check http://www.webmastersite.net/forums/index.php?sho... and see if your issue is the same as there.