Hi, Richard, I've just been reading the manual (online - no, I didn't think of that before). I can't say I'm much wiser, apart from apparently cookies are implicit, so I stand corrected, and there are some other snippets of code in readers' comments. So I'll plough on ....

Edna

This tells me that you have upgraded to Opera 7.5x. Preferences used to be on the file menu, but it has moved to the tool menu in this version. "ALT + P" still brings up the preferences menu.

Having said that it also handles cookies differently. If you have Opera set to 'accept all cookies' (get your head examined and change it after you fix this issue); you should see a cookie for 'localhost' (I believe). If you want to save time (if you are wide open then you will have lots of cookies)when you go to the cookie page, type in PHP in the search box (aka "quick search"). This will bring up anything with the string "PHP" in it. It should only be cookies. I would also suggest TOOLS>DELETE PRIVATE DATA ........ and then access your web application BEFORE GOING TO THE NET. It should be clear where you cookie is.

You may also have to check (tick)"Accept cookies with incorrect path". It is possible that Opera will see 'localhost' as an incorrect name, since it is not terminated with a TLD (.com .net .org etc...).

Preferred cookie settings:
"Treat as specified in Server Manager" - normal cookies
"Refuse all cookies" - third party cookies
I also have "Delete New Cookies When Exiting Opera" checked (ticked).

These settings will force you to manually allow cookies for each server. It is amazing what sites become less valuable when you see all the data they are collecting.

Hope that helps.

GOTTIT! It's solved!

Thanks to everybody for your help, especially Richard.

It was ZONEALARM!!! I tried all cookie combinations including "enable all" - I usually have it set to "ask" - and it made no difference. Then I remembered having had difficulty making a purchase from an online site, and they kept telling me to enable cookies, which of course I had, and as a last resort switched off ZoneAlarm and was able to order. So I did the same here (I am running Apache offline anyway) and Bingo!! Set the cookies back to "ask", and it still runs; of course it does ask. I will configure that out.

Not very satisfactory in the long run - I will have to configure ZA too; but at least it will let me get on .... to Chapter 3!

I did forget to mention that 'localhost' entry will be wiped out by Opera if you close the browser.

I'm having the same problem. I'm not running ZONE ALARM, and I've tried the remedies recommended in this post. When I click on the link in movie1.php, the data is not passed to moviesite.php. I've looked in the file that stores the session data. Two files are created - the first file has the username and authuser data, the second file is blank. Please help.

My web server:
Win XP Pro
Apache 2
MySQL 4.19
PHP 4.3.10

The "Session" section of my PHP.ini file (comments removed):

[Session]

session.save_handler = files
session.save_path = C:\TEMP
session.use_cookies = 1
session.use_only_cookies = 1
session.name = PHPSESSID
session.auto_start = 0
session.cookie_lifetime = 0
session.cookie_path = /
session.cookie_domain =
session.serialize_handler = php
session.gc_probability = 1
session.gc_divisor = 1000
session.gc_maxlifetime = 1440
session.bug_compat_42 = 0
session.bug_compat_warn = 1
session.referer_check =
session.entropy_length = 0
session.entropy_file =
;session.entropy_length = 16
;session.entropy_file = /dev/urandom
session.cache_limiter = nocache
session.cache_expire = 180
session.use_trans_sid = 1

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

-- Jeff

Disregard, it's working now, although I have no idea why...

-- Jeff