Cookie, Cache or Fresh? — TechKnowSurge

About this interactive

The Cookies and Caches lesson separates two things a browser keeps on your computer. Cookies. A cookie is a small piece of information a website stores on your computer: what is in your shopping cart, or that you are signed in, so you can pick up where you left off after a crash or a day away. The downside: sites read cookies, and some use them to see where you have browsed and market to you. The cache. When you visit a site, files such as its pictures can be stored on your computer, so the next visit does not download them again. That speeds sites up. Each cached file has an expiry time, after which the browser downloads it again or checks for an update. What is not cached. Dynamic content, like a report you pull, has to be up to date every time, so it comes fresh from the site. When they cause trouble. Old cookies or cached files can stop a site showing the way it should after it changes. Clearing cookies and cached files (in Chrome, Privacy and security, Delete browsing data) is a standard troubleshooting step. Sort each moment: a cookie the site saved, a file in the browser's cache, or content downloaded fresh each visit.

What you'll learn

Tell what a cookie does (remembers your cart, your sign-in and where you have been) from what the cache does (keeps a site's files such as pictures so they are not downloaded again), and recognize dynamic content that is downloaded fresh every visit

Aligned to

CompTIA Tech+

3.5 Given a scenario, configure and use web browsers.

CompTIA A+ Core 2

2.10 Given a scenario, install and configure browsers and relevant security settings.

Key terms

Browser Cookie: A small piece of data stored on a user's computer by a website to remember information such as login status or shopping cart contents between sessions.
Cached Data: Web content, such as images or files, downloaded from a site and stored locally so it does not need to be re-downloaded on subsequent visits.
Browser History: A record of websites and pages a user has previously visited, stored by the web browser.

Topics

Cookies Browser Cache Web Browsers Interactive Categorize

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