how do i tell who somebody might be?

[vaska]

sorry for that subject header...very inspecific...

i'm creating an online form that people can use to register...but i want to be able to tell who these people might be also...

like obtaining their ip number or better yet some kind of information from their computer (is this what cookies do?)...

it's an issue because i want to TRY to identify competitors to a certain degree so they can't poach the information...

thanks for any ideas...jv

[sgoku01]

For a IP-address you could use: $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']

I don't know how to obtain info of a user's computer, but I can tell you, that you don't do that with cookies.
You can use cookies for saving data on the user's computer. Information like: username, time of login, etc.

[pyro]

When they submit the form you could go ahead and set a cookie...That way, when they come back, you can know who they are.