setcookie() Not Working

Phred711

I have a user that seems to be having problems with cookies on one of my sites. I have tried anything and everything under the sun to try and get his computer to accept my site's cookies, but it still won't work. He's using IE 6 and I've heard of some issues regarding IE 6 and cookies, but even the fixes suggested don't work.

Here's what I've tried so far:

A P3P compact policy
Checking the host vs. the server name
Setting the time zone (though it shouldn't matter with a 10 day expiration)

Using somebody else's cookie test
[/list=1]

I gave him the following test page that essentially tests all these various aspects of setting a cookie:

<?
    putenv ("TZ=America/New_York");
    header('P3P: CP="NOI ADM DEV PSAi COM NAV OUR OTRo STP IND DEM"');

$cookiename = "KafenatidTest";
$cookiepath = "/";
$cookiedomain = ".kafenatid.net";
$cookiesecure = 0;

if($set == "true")
{
    $current_time = time();
    $expire = ($current_time + (60 * 60 * 24 * 10));

    // get session_id
    $session_id = md5(uniqid($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']."USERID19TIME".time()));

    setcookie($cookiename."_sid", $session_id, $expire, $cookiepath, $cookiedomain, 0);

    header("Location: index2.php");
}
elseif($delete == "true")
{
    $current_time = time();
    $expire = ($current_time - (60 * 60 * 24 * 2));

    $session_id = $_COOKIE[$cookiename."_sid"];

    setcookie($cookiename."_sid", $session_id, $expire, $cookiepath, $cookiedomain, 0);

    header("Location: index2.php");
}

// check to see if the browser will accept cookies
// this should trigger first, on the first access to the page
if(!isset($_GET["cookiechecking"]))
{
    setcookie("check_cookie", "on", time()+360000);
    if(!isset($_GET["cooktest"]))
    {
        header("Location: $_SERVER[PHP_SELF]?cooktest=1");
        exit;
    }
}
?>
<html>
<head>
<title>Untitled Document</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
</head>

<body>
<?
    print_r($_COOKIE);
    print("<br><br>");
    print("Cookie Test: ".$_COOKIE["check_cookie"]."<br>");

if($_COOKIE[$cookiename."_sid"])
{
    print("COOKIE SET: ".$_COOKIE[$cookiename."_sid"]."<br>");
}
else
{
    print("COOKIE NOT SET<br>");
}
print($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']."<br>");
print($_SERVER['SERVER_NAME']);
?>
<p><a href="index2.php?set=true">Click here to set cookie</a>
</p>
</body>
</html>

I asked him to copy and paste the output and this is what he got:

Array ( )

Cookie Test:
COOKIE NOT SET
www.kafenatid.net
www.kafenatid.net

I also asked him to check his Privacy Report and he says that it said, "Based on your privacy setings, no cookies were restricted or blocked" and that it shows cookies from my site were accepted. Yet, based on the above, the cookies seem to be disappearing into who-knows-where.

This is extremely frustrating, so any insight would be much appreciated.

Phred711

Nobody has any insight whatsoever? 😕

Zxin

I am willing to bet this problem is only with this user's configuration (OS, browser, firewall, router, etc)

To troubleshoot I would ask them to install an alternate browser such as Netscape, and have them test your "test page" out with NO modifications or tinkering with NS at all. If he already has NS installed I would install something else. If this works with NS then you know its a windows/IE issue. If it doesnt there may be some software (or even router firmware) messing around with things.

I know this is alot of work but hey, you can go the extra mile to prove your code is ok...
OR you can tell the user that nobody else is having this problem and to stop messing with his configuration. 😉 Personally I would take the former.

Phred711

Zxin, thanks for the reply. I have him downloading and testing the page with Mozilla Firebird. He tried Netscape and said it really messed up his system. I think that gave me some insight into where the problem might be originating. 😃

Anyhow, thanks for the suggestion. I'll see how it turns out.