The Filters page
The Filters page can be displayed by selecting the Filters tab in the main Cookie Pal window. This page displays two lists of web sites (or servers) from which cookies will be automatically accepted or rejected. In addition you can specify how cookies from servers which are not in these lists should be handled on this page.
The lists contain server or web site names in the form of their domain names or IP addresses. For example you could add www.microsoft.com to the reject list to always reject any cookies you receive from the Microsoft web site. Or you could add 200.100.100.1 to the accept list to always accept cookies from the web server at address 200.100.100.1 (which might be on the internet or your company LAN).
The easiest way to maintain these lists is by using the Ask for confirmation radio button which allows you to add server to these lists on the fly as cookies are received. See the Cookies from unknown servers topic below for more information.
Accept cookies from:
This list displays the servers from which you wish to always accept cookies. You can click on the New button below this list to add a new server to the list, or you can select a server from the list and click on the Delete button below the list to delete a server from the list.
Reject cookies from:
This list displays the servers from which you wish to always reject cookies. You can click on the New button below this list to add a new server to the list, or you can select a server from the list and click on the Delete button below the list to delete a server from the list.
Using wildcards in filters
You can use the wildcard character (*) in filters to accept or reject cookies from all web sites on a given domain. The asterisk can be used at the start of a domain name or at the end of a numeric domain address.
For example, specifying *.abc.com as a filter will match www1.abc.com, www2.abc.com, xyz.abc.com etc. When used with a domain name, the asterisk must be the first character and there must be only two parts of the domain name after the asterisk. i.e. *.abc.com can be used, but *.abc.def.com and abc.* cannot.
For numeric domains, the last part of the IP address can be specified as an asterisk. For example, 200.200.200.* will match 200.200.200.1, 200.200.200.2, 200.200.200.255 etc.
If you use the Ask for confirmation option (described below) and you receive a cookie from a web site which has a 3 part domain name or a numeric domain, then a check box will appear on the confirmation dialog box. If you click the checkbox to place a check in it and then select the Never or Always button, then the domain name will be added to your filter list with a wildcard, and the filter will match all web sites on the same domain.
This feature only works if you have the Advanced Security Privacy update for Internet Explorer 5.5 installed on your computer.
Cookies that are received from a different web site than the one you are viewing are known as third-party cookies. These cookies are usually set by advertising companies who may be displaying ads on the web site that you are visiting. Third-party cookies can usually safely be rejected and checking this option in Cookie Pal will cause third-party cookies to be rejected automatically.
Cookies from unknown servers
The radio buttons in this group allow you to specify what should be done when a cookie is received from a server which is not in either of the two lists above. You can choose from the following three options:
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Reject all |
Selecting this option will cause Cookie Pal to automatically reject (without any user intervention) any cookies received which are not in the Accept cookies from: list. This allows you to set up a list of web sites from which you want to accept cookies and then reject any other cookies which are received. |
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Accept all |
Selecting this option will cause Cookie Pal to automatically accept (without any user intervention) any cookies received which are not in the Reject cookies from: list. This allows you to set up a list of web sites from which you want to reject cookies and then accept any other cookies which are received. |
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Ask for confirmation |
Selecting this option will cause Cookie Pal to display a message box whenever a cookie is received which is not in either of the two lists above. When such a cookie is received a dialog box will be displayed with four buttons allowing the user to choose what to do with the cookie. The dialog will display information about the cookie and then will ask whether or not you want to accept the cookie. For more information about this message box see the help topic The cookie confirmation window. |
This check box allows you to specify that any cookies that expire within a given time period should be accepted. If you select this option, then you can select the time period in the drop down list next to this option. With this option selected, a cookie that does not match any of the filters set up in the Accept and Reject lists (see start of this help topic) will be accepted if it expires within the specified time period (from the current time). If you select the "in the current browser session" option, then only cookies that will expire when the browser closes down will be accepted. If the cookie does not fall within the specified time period, then it will be processed according to the options above.
Override Filters
If you check this option, then cookies that expire within the time period specified will be accepted even if the cookie is in your Reject cookies from: list. This allows you, for example, to accept all cookies that expire in the current browser session, even if the cookies would normally be rejected because they are in the Reject cookies from: filter list. Cookies that do not match the expiration restriction here will still be treated as normal and accepted or rejected per other settings on this page.