Dear Wilhoite Family (I'm sending this for Jacob Wilhoite.All replies PLEASE send to him. Thank You. Our family reunion is scheduled for June 13,1998 at the Henry Horton State Park. A covered dish luncheon is planned at 12 noon. Hot dogs will be roasted at 6 P.M. Bring hot dogs & fixing! The Park opens at 6 A.M. and closes at 10 P.M. It's is your family. Please come and bring your children. They won't know their family if you don't bring them. We have a limited supply of the WILHOITE FAMILY COOKBOOK available at $8.00 All proceeds from the sale of these cookbooks go to the Wilhoite-Whitesell Cemetery in Bedford County on Sims Road. When remaining cookbooks are sold,we will have enough money for the cemetery marker. We look forward to seeing you in June. Jacob and Faye Wilhoite 2272 Robert Ridge Road Manchester, Tn. 37355 931-857-3233 Mr. Jacob Wilhoite and his wife wrote a book on the Wilhoite's titled The Ancestors & Descendants of Jacob Wilhoit 1751-1821 My line of Wilhoits are from Eva Willheit born ca.1721 married Nicholas Holt. Hope to meet more cousins. Lois

Hi. I wanted to forward this message that I sent to a lady requesting information on how I was descended from the Wilhoit family. I told her I was descended through at least four of the children of Daniel Cook and Rosanna Wilhoit. Here is what I sent her. Just background information. I'm sure you all have already posted your information to the list. Carol Pack Urban

I am forwarding this WILHITE info. -- \\\|/// \\ ~ ~ // ( @ @ ) ------- oOOo-(_)-oOOo--------------- Robert L. Williams KC7BUM ---Veteran of operation Just Cause Republic of Panama 1989 Heather Williams Bryce LeGrand Williams Kjersten Chase Noelle Williams Ashland, Oregon [email protected] --------------------Oooo.----------- .oooO ( ) ( ) ) / \ ( (_/ \_)

At 08:50 AM 4/20/98 -0400, a Subscriber wrote: >Please don't make the background red. Black on red is impossible to read. Hi Folks. No one is "making" the backgrounds the colors you all describe. It has something to do with the Digests, RootsWeb, Your ISP, and Your Email Browser. There's something there somewhere that is causing the colors due to incompatibilities. It's being worked on and hopefully will be "fixed" soon. In the meantime, you can always unsubscribe to the Digest Mode and re-subscribe to the Normal Mode, which gives you each message individually, rather than all together in a Digest. Regards, SgtGeorge List Administrator

I have no idea what this is about. BB

request

Hi folks, Reposting for the benefit of new members. I am searching for the roots/origins/siblings of Maria WILHITE and her husband William BOWEN. Together they had a daughter Sarah Malinda BOWEN, born 1813 in Tennessee. Sarah BOWEN married John HESTER of Franklin County, Alabama on 24 Feb 1831. I have lots of information on the background of this HESTER line, but would like to get some info on these WILHITE and BOWEN lines. I have no further information about them. If somebody can make a definate connection, or enlighten me further, please let me know. Take care, Robert -- \\\|/// \\ ~ ~ // ( @ @ ) ------- oOOo-(_)-oOOo--------------- Robert L. Williams KC7BUM ---Veteran of operation Just Cause Republic of Panama 1989 Heather Williams Bryce LeGrand Williams Kjersten Chase Noelle Williams Ashland, Oregon [email protected] --------------------Oooo.----------- .oooO ( ) ( ) ) / \ ( (_/ \_)

Oops, I almost forgot. Don't you DARE respond to this on any of these Lists!!!!! This was meant in fun and intended to provoke thought among all you users. If you MUST respond, please do so to my personal email address, which you can certainly pick out from the FROM: header line in the message. SgtGeorge

Folks, here it is! At long last, the short, concise, "true" "Guide On How To Compose Email To Mailing Lists & Newsgroups". This message is from the Listowner of 11 Mailing Lists and 5 Newsgroups. I know whereof I speak and can attest to the fact that the following "Guide" from Richard Pence is the only one you, as a subscriber, will ever need. Please read all of it and learn something from it. (GRIN) (Gosh, I love it!!!!! Dick, you will surely win a Pulitzer Prize for this one.) *************************(Start of Quoted Message)************************* PREFACE: Over the past couple of years it has become increasingly apparent that many participants in the genealogy newsgroups are failing to fully utilize the potential of these media. Therefore, the following guidelines are presented for the benefit of both veterans and newcomers in the hope they will result in more effective participation by all. Effective Use of Genealogy Newsgroups 1. USE "HOT WORDS": Be sure to include one or more of the following words or phrases in either the subject or body of your messages: geneology, cemetary, calender, sirname, illigitimate, ancester, Morman, land warrent, proginy or desendant. Similar displays of originality are encouraged, as these help attract attention to your posts and demonstrate you are eager to learn. Note also that it isn't necessary to use normal punctuation or grammar in newsgroups because everyone knows what you intended. 2. POST EARLY AND OFTEN: No matter what you are writing about, you should post your messages in as many different newsgroups as possible. After all, the people who originally defined the content of each newsgroup couldn't possibly have anticipated that your messages would all transcend normal categorization. Bonus tip: Always vote "yes" when a new genealogy newsgroup is proposed, as this will give you another place to repeat your posts. It can always be assumed that if the newsgroup title includes the word genealogy, it's OK for you to post there. 3. QUOTE THE QUOTE: When replying to another article, by all means quote it in its entirety, including previously quoted material, the mail routing information and, especially, the total signature of the original poster. Otherwise, someone might not know what message you are replying to and where it came from. Alternatively: Don't quote any of the previous message; readers will enjoy the challenge of guessing what you might be referring to. One-line responses like: "I don't believe this is always true" are real attention-getters. 4. SIGN OFF WITH STYLE: Be sure to make the signature at the end of your messages as long as possible and include it with every one of your posts. The signature should always include your full name, address, phone numbers (including fax and modem), website address or addresses, and so on, for both your residence and office. Don't forget to include any titles, degrees or offices held (now or in the past), or the names of genealogical or other organizations to which you belong or belonged. Signatures should always have a large design made up of ASCII characters (simple + and - signs aligned across the page are hardly adequate because they don't lengthen your signature enough. If your imagination is faltering, a design showing a little man with a long nose, bulging eyes and his hair on end clutching at and peering over a fence is always a good choice. Your signature should _never_ be without one or more quotations, slogans (political slogans or those disparaging "the government" are always hits!) or "wise sayings," correctly or incorrectly attributed to famous people. If you don't have any good quotes from famous people, it is OK to swipe a cutesy one from someone else. Or you can use your state motto. Do NOT forget the disclaimer telling readers that what you write is your own opinion and does not represent the views of your company, your spouse, your children or neighbors. Your signature reflects YOU and YOUR personality, so you shouldn't spare the horses! [NOTE: The "non-signature signature" is an appropriate alternative. Under this method, you should never disclose your identity or where you are. Initials, "handles" or other esoteric identifiers are all acceptable. After all, it is never wise to tell people who you are in a public forum, especially one devoted to genealogy.] 5. CHOICE SUBJECTS: The best subject lines are quite general. If you include such phrases as "Help Needed," "Tracing My Geneology" (note the example of "hot word" usage), "What Do I Do Now?" or "Software Problem," readers must actually look at your article to find out what you are writing about. This gambit will solidify your reputation as a marketing whiz! 6. SURNAME QUERIES: When posting a surname query, it is not necessary to include such trivia as where the family lived or when. After all, anyone searching that name will know whether his or her line is related to yours. A query with the subject of "SMITH, JONES and JOHNSON" with the message asking "Anyone searching these families?"will garner many responses from others searching these lines. 7. BOOK-SHY: Questions that can be answered by looking in a dictionary or other common home reference, such as a roadmap or atlas, or by checking any one of a half-dozen websites are excellent choices for your postings. These always garner many responses and, at the same time, assure that no dust collects on the books owned by others. If you handle this with finesse, you can even get others to look up local phone numbers for you! Remember: The purpose of newsgroups and, indeed, the Internet itself, is to enable you to avoid visits to libraries, court houses or archives or having to look at musty old books. 8. BE AMONG THE FAITHFUL: True and faithful newsgroup participants respond to as many messages as possible, even if they are unfamiliar with the topic. Readers are always interested in the opinions of others, especially yours. Messages that begin with "I have heard that...," "Someone told me...," or "I always thought..." are among those which get high readership and help demonstrate the knowledge of and experience in genealogy of the posters. It is never necessary to cite an authority when making such responses; including such extraneous information draws attention from the answer. 9. KEEPING THE CROWD INFORMED: Always post your responses within the group itself rather than replying via private e-mail. Not only will this allow everyone to benefit from what you say, it gives them a sense of security to know they haven't missed anything. Requests that responses be made via e-mail are obviously not intended for you. And, if you get a message from someone warning about a virus that has invaded newsgroup messages or one warning about another dumb thing "the government" is doing, by all means post it in as many groups as possible. 10. MAKING SURE: If you do not see your article in the group within the hour, be sure to re- post it as soon as possible. Duplicate postings help assure that others will not miss your important messages. If, after several tries, no one responds, you should post several test messages asking everyone who sees the message to respond in the group so you can be sure your connection is working correctly. If is never sufficient to test your local connections. The only tests that get results are those which cover the entire Net. 11. CRAFTING CRAFTY REPLIES: Here are some tips that can help you with your newsgroup responses: (a) When someone asks for recommendations on "the best genealogy software," it is not necessary to know what equipment the person has or what his or her experience is in genealogy and computers or his or her genealogical goals. Simply respond saying, "I use ---- and LOVE it!" program YOU use. The same response is appropriate is some else says they like a different program. (c) The proper format for replies to surname queries is: "Were any of your SMITHs ever in [insert state here]?" Disregard any references to specific places. (d) The answer to the "cousin question is _always_ "second cousin, once removed." There are no exceptions. (e) If someone asks a question you may not know anything about, the proper response is a message giving the details of a family story your Great Aunt Betsey once told you. Special hint: When someone asks about an unusual given name or surname, be sure to respond with a message saying you are not familiar with that name, "but here are some of the unusual names I have encountered in my research...." (f) Even if a question has already been answered, you should also respond. Quote the entire question and the response and add: "I agree." (g) Above all, do not refer someone to a FAQ, website or other authority on the topic. This prevents thousands of others from benefiting from your knowledge and experience. Besides, most FAQs were written specifically for the purpose of heading off certain on-line discussions and, consequently, are obviously an effort to stifle free speech, and every knows you have the right to say whatever you please on the Internet. (h) If your response is especially important, WRITE IT IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. That way it will be sure to be read by everyone. 12. I KNOW IT'S TRUE: Finally, it is always safe to rely on the responses you see in the various newsgroups because no genealogist would post unless he or she was quite sure of the accuracy of what is being written. This is especially true if the question is: "What given name does the abbreviation 'Jno.' stand for?" (No fair looking in your dictionary!) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Before you start sending threatening mail, please look at the date this message was posted. If you still having problems understanding the meaning of the above, you should consult your children as quickly as possible. Do NOT wait until the weekend.] DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of his employer, who could care less. While the situations depicted are factual, any resemblance to an actual message, living or dead, is entirely intended. This material is presented "as is" with no written or implied warranty. Have a good one. Richard A. Pence 1 April 1998 Richard A. Pence <[email protected]> Pence Family History <http://www.pipeline.com/~richardpence/index.htm

There seems to have been some problems on the Net Saturday night and Sunday. Several servers were bouncing all email and I have been deluged with "bounce" messages from RootsWeb. Many subscribers have been unsubscribed, especially those that use the WorldNet.ATT server. If you have had problems lately, this is probably the reason. If you were unsubscribed, you would have received a message from RootsWeb informing you, provided, of course, that your server was back online in time for you to receive the message from RootsWeb; otherwise, that notification would have bounced also. I know it's kind of stupid on my part, sending this out when the users who were unsubscribed won't see it. But, maybe if some of you have personal contact with users, you might inform them of the problem, and just tell them to re-subscribe. PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT ON THIS MESSAGE ON THE LISTS !!!!! If you wish to discuss it, send to my personal email address: mailto:[email protected] SgtGeorge Listowner

Seeking information on Maria WILHITE. She was the wife of William BOWEN. I've been told that there is a William BOWEN home still standing in Moss Wright Park in Nashville and is preserved. This William Bowen was the maternal grandfather of Tennessee Governor William Bowen Campbell, who served about 1850-1853. I am trying to determine if Maria WILHITE was the wife of this William BOWEN who owned the home in Moss Wright park. This may not be the same William BOWEN I am looking for. My William BOWEN and Maria WILHITE had a daughter, Sarah Malinda BOWEN, born about 1813 in TN or AL. She married John E. HESTER. I have lots on the HESTERs. Would like to concentrate on the BOWEN/WILHITE line. If you can help me, please let me know. Take care, Robert

Hi Folks! I am searching for roots and origins of William BOWEN, born about 1790 in TN we believe. He was married to Maria WILHITE. They had a daughter Sarah Malinda BOWEN, born 1813 who married John E. HESTER of Franklin County, Al. I have lots of info on the HESTERs, would like to concentrate on the BOWEN and WILHITE lines. Somebody mentioned that my William BOWEN may be related to early governors of TN and VA. I have no other dates of locations to offer than what I have listed above. If anybody can enlighten me further on William BOWEN or Maria WILHITE, please let me know. Take care, Robert -- \\\|/// \\ ~ ~ // ( @ @ ) ------- oOOo-(_)-oOOo--------------- Robert L. Williams KC7BUM ---Veteran of operation Just Cause Republic of Panama 1989 Heather Williams Bryce LeGrand Williams Kjersten Chase Noelle Williams Ashland, Oregon [email protected] --------------------Oooo.----------- .oooO ( ) ( ) ) / \ ( (_/ \_)

When a new user subscribes to a List at RootsWeb, he/she sends the subscription email to an address that contains "-request" in it. That new subscriber receives a Welcome Message that plainly states that email to the List goes to an address that does NOT contain the "-request". An address containing "-request" is ONLY for subscribing or unsubscribing. For some unfathomable reason, there are users who either don't read the Welcome Message, or who can't understand simple instructions. In the future (starting tomorrow, April 2), if a subscriber sends an email to the List address containing the "-request", I will immediately manually unsubscribe that user. If a user doesn't care enough to do things prop- erly, or to read the Welcome Message, then that user doesn't deserve to belong to the List. If you have argument with this stance and wish to discuss it, DO NOT send your reply back to the List !!!!! Send it to me personally at: [email protected] If you reply to this subject back to the List, I will unsubscribe you. I will not tolerate any off-topic arguments on the List. If you are confused as to what I am talking about, I will give you an example of the TWO address that are used with Lists. Where you see "LISTNAME", just substitute the name of the List to which you subscribe. To subscribe to, or unsubscribe from, a List at RootsWeb, you send your email to: [email protected] or [email protected] (Depending on whether you are subscribing to, or unsubscribing from, the Normal mode or the Digest mode.) To send email to the List, you send to: [email protected] (You don't ever send email to "LISTNAME-D".) Some of you subscribe, using the address containing the"-request", then continue to forward email to that same address, even though the Welcome Message explicitly tells you not to. Sorry to be so cantankerous, but I've about had it with people who unpack their computers, plug them up and plug in a cord to the phone outlet, get "online", and then refuse to read anything they receive in the way of HELP files. You wanna participate, you gotta follow the rules. It's that simple. Regards, SgtGeorge List Administrator

If you are sending email that causes attachments to these Lists, please read the instructions below to find out how to re-configure your email browser to stop the attachments. PLEASE DO NOT ANSWER THIS EMAIL BACK TO THE LIST !!!!! If you feel you must make a comment to me, send it to my personal email address: [email protected] If you don't know whether or not you are sending attachments, follow the instructions below and make sure your configuration is in line with the requirements for sending email to mailing lists. If your browser is configured to send vCards, please turn them off. *************************************************************************** Reconfiguring Microsoft Internet Explorer Program: Open Microsoft Internet Browser; Click: "Mail" Icon; Select: "Read Mail"; Click: "Mail" along the top of the email screen; Click: "Options" Select the: "Send" tab; Go to: "Mail Sending Format"; Select: "Plain Text"; Click: "Settings" Select: "Uuencode"; Click: "OK"; Click: "Apply"; Click: "OK" ==================== Reconfiguring Microsoft Outlook Express Email Program: Open Microsoft Outlook Express; Click: "Tools" Click: "Options" Select the: "Send" tab; Go to: "Mail Sending Format"; Select: "Plain Text"; Click: "Settings" opposite "Plain Text" Select: "Uuencode"; Click: "OK"; Click: "Apply"; Click: "OK" ================ Reconfiguring Netscape Communicator Email Program: Using Netscape Communicator (Netscape 4.x), from the menu select "edit" then from that menu select "preferences." From that screen select "mail & groups" then "messages." Under '"messages properties" make sure the box "by default, send HTML message" is NOT selected. Thanks for your cooperation, SgtGeorge List Administrator NOTE: The above instructions were written by Lin Wright <[email protected]> and passed on to listowners.

Subscribers, please forgive me for sending this on to all of you, but I feel that you should know what is happening at RootsWeb and how it affects you. Many of you new subscribers may not know, but Brian and Karen at RootsWeb operate at a loss every year. We Listowners pay our fees for having these Lists (notice that we PAY for the privilege of being Listowners), and most of us pay much more than the minimum required contribution. You subscribers pay NOTHING for being able to use the Lists; there never is a fee for being a subscriber, and that will never change; however, RootsWeb DOES depend on generous subscribers sending in whatever they can to RootsWeb just to help out. If any of you feel generous and want to help, RootsWeb is always grateful for even small contributions. A dollar or two, $5, or whatever you can spare would go a long way to ensuring that this wonderful service continues to provide us with an almost unlimited opportunity to exchange ideas and data. Brian doesn't say so here, but last year RootsWeb spent $60,000+ more for necessary hardware and software than was received in the form of contributions, fees, etc. Fortunately Brian and Karen are able to do this without having to mortgage their home. (GRIN) But, you could all help out a little by some small contribution. PLEASE DO NOT CONSIDER THIS A COERCIVE PLOY TO GET YOU TO CONTRIBUTE. If you don't want to, you don't have to. You may go on receiving the many bene- fits of RootsWeb without ANY contribution. You can use "snail mail" and send contributions to: RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative P.O. Box 6798 Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798 You may use RootsWeb Credit Card utility for contributing at this URL: http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/how-to-subscribe.html In any case, do whatever your conscience allows. We will all be grateful. Below is Brian's latest update on the happenings at RootsWeb. (If you are not already a contributing member of the RootsWeb family, you might consider becoming one. There are many benefits of being a contributor, which you will find out if you go to the web site and read about subscribing, including hosting Lists, having Web Pages, etc. If you know of any genealogy researchers who might like to join us, let them know. After all, any server that handles close to 100 MILLION pieces of email a month has to be doing something right. SOMEONE must be gaining valuable information from the Lists!) ************************************************** This note is going to tell you that RootsWeb set a new record level of service to the genealogical community last month, but a more important message that I'd like to convey first is just how important your support has been. RootsWeb wouldn't be here without you. In February, without your support we couldn't have purchased a generator to keep the servers up during the El Nino storms, a new search engine server for the USGenWeb and mailing list archives, and a new server to host Cyndi Howells' Website and the USGenWeb query systems. Your continued support is essential to us: just to keep up with demand, in the next few weeks we're going to have to upgrade the main Web server, upgrade the mail hub server, and start preparing to add a third list server. All that costs money. And beyond those inescapable upgrades, we really want to be building a kitty for buying genealogical datasets and bringing more new services online for the whole community. If you can spread the word and help us find more Members, Sponsors, and Donors, you'll be helping us keep up with demand and bring new data and services online. *** AND NOW FOR THE REPORT *** February was an incredible month: El Nino storms repeatedly caused us to lose power, and I wound up having to 4-wheel- drive off the mountain in a snowstorm to find and buy a generator to keep RootsWeb online. Because of our batteries and our generator, we were down only minutes even though the power was off for days. Also, Cyndi Howells' Website moved to RootsWeb right in the middle of the storms and the USGenWeb query system needed more CPU cycles and bandwidth, so we added a server and load balanced our T1 connections to the Internet right in the midst of all the snowfalls and power outages. We had about 11% absolute growth during just the month of February, but that's deceptively low because February is a short month. Our actual *daily* load increased about 20%: o 29,372,613 Web files (27,751,946 in Jan) from 2,488 Websites (2,400 in Jan). - 8,602,112 were HTML pages (not images or cgi-bin) (8,308,561 in Jan). - 3,446,096 were cgi-bin database searches and such. (3,574,701 in Jan). - 17,248,967 were GIFs (15,850,655) or JPEGs (1,398,312) (15,784,790 in Jan were GIFs (14,529,204) or JPEGs (1,255,586). o 644,950 FTP file downloads from the USGenWeb Archives and the ROOTS-L Library (618,762 in Jan). o Thanks to a neat hack by Tim Pierce, we know we shipped about 82,150,000 pieces of mail (88,649,000 in Jan) pieces of mail to the 3,050+ (2,600 in Jan) mailing lists we host. (The 82 million is probably low; we had to archive a significant amount of mail before the count because of a disk space crunch on one of the mail servers ... ) o 60,000 alt.g and s.g.* Usenet News articles to hosts on three continents (same as Jan). o Approximately 505,361,000,000 bytes in total (451,786,000,000 in Jan). And that's what RootsWeb did in February. Let me thank you once again for supporting RootsWeb -- none of this would be available to the community without your help, and your continuing support can help us grow and provide even more service to the community. Thank you, B. -- Dr. Brian Leverich Co-moderator, soc.genealogy.methods/GENMTD-L RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative http://www.rootsweb.com/ P.O. Box 6798, Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798 [email protected]

The Mack/Mock Connection - a genealogy site for Mack and Mock researchers: http://personal.mia.bellsouth.net/mia/t/m/tmock/connect.htm

Subscribers, please be aware that I have contacted the ISP from whence this stupid, teenage SPAM originated. The site, for a beginning, shows much promise, but the owners have to realize they are antagonizing users of these Lists, and that they are severely hurting their potential by sending this SPAM. If you REALLY belive that SPAMMERS should be stopped and that they should be punished for their total disregard of Net protocol, DO NOT respond to their unsolicited ads and let them know at every opportunity that you are sick and tired of having to download their junk mail. SgtGeorge Listowner of all the Lists to which this is being sent, except for SURNAME-QUERY, which is managed by the fantastic Ron Lahti.

I have just posted Note Nr. 317 to the Web site. You can access the latest posting by going to the URL: http://www.concentric.net/~sgtgeorg/germhs13.shtml If you would like to be notified when new postings of John's "Notes" are made to the web site, send an email to: [email protected] And type "Notify Me" in the SUBJECT: line. SgtGeorge Curator of the BROYLES/BRILES Family History Web Site BROYLES List Administrator WILHITE List Administrator GERMANNA_COLONIES List Administrator RESEARCH-HOWTO List Administrator CROCKETT List Administrator CULLOP List Administrator DURMAN List Administrator GAROUTTE List Administrator LOVETTE List Administrator WILKINSON List Administrator CFT-WIN List Administrator

Hi folks! I am searching info on William BOWEN (No dates available; believed to have been born in Georgia), married Maria WILHITE. (Both believed to have died in Franklin County, Alabama. Not sure where they were buried.) They had a daughter Sarah Malinda BOWEN, born about 1812 in Tennessee. She married 24 December 1831 John E. HESTER (b. 16 July 1810). I have lots on the Hesters--need BOWEN/WILHITE connections. Any info on them, please let me know. Robert -- \\\|/// \\ ~ ~ // ( @ @ ) ------- oOOo-(_)-oOOo--------------- Robert L. Williams KC7BUM ---Veteran of operation Just Cause Republic of Panama 1989 Heather Williams Bryce LeGrand Williams Kjersten Chase Noelle Williams Ashland, Oregon [email protected] --------------------Oooo.----------- .oooO ( ) ( ) ) / \ ( (_/ \_)

Having just received the article below from one of the services to which I subscribe, I thought I would share the knowledge with all you fellow subscribers. I apologize if it is off-topic, but I feel it is important enough to risk the wrath of some of you. I DO ask that if you wish to discuss this, that you send back to me via my private email address. DO NOT send your replies, comments, agree- ments, opposition, etc., back to the mailing lists. Sending something that is of value to users is one thing, making a thread of it is not. As both a Listowner and subscriber to many lists, I see this subject, COOKIES, show up from time to time and cringe at the uninformed opinions that I see on the subject. As you will see if you continue to read this post, COOKIES are absolutely nothing to fear. They can do you NO harm! In fact, they make your web browsing much easier. I don't know about you, but it pleases me that, when I log on to a URL that I have visited before, I don't have to retype UserName, ID, Password, etc., again and again. COOKIES are a wonderful invention and those software writers that keep producing programs/utilities to negate the COOKIES, are only preying on users gullibility and ignorance. Please read the article below to find out the truth. SgtGeorge ============================================================== - U.S. Government Advisory On Cookies The U.S. government is always warning its citizens about the dangers of tobacco, cholesterol, alcohol or sexually transmitted diseases. One branch of the Department of Energy also alerts all of us of the dangers of computer viruses and other computer security problems. But this week that same agency said that we should not worry about "cookies." Cookies are short pieces of data used by web servers to help identify web users. The "cookies" actually are stored in a text file on your own hard drive, but remote Web sites can write data to your cookies file and then retrieve that data on a later visit. Normally, cookies are used as "placeholders" so that you can return to the same page on a Web site. The cookies also could contain user IDs, passwords or personal information that you previously entered such as name, age, sex, mailing address or almost anything else that a Web site wishes to store on your hard drive for later use. Messages have floated around the online world for a couple of years now proclaiming the "dangers of cookies." Some of these messages were nearly panic-stricken texts describing all the "dangers." The online world seems to be a bit paranoid about cookies. In fact, you can even obtain programs that either disable cookies or hide them in such a manner that they are invisible to Web sites. Now the U.S. government says, "The popular concepts and rumors about what a cookie can do has reached almost mystical proportions, frightening users and worrying their managers." The highly-respected U.S. Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Capability office says that such concerns are hogwash. In a news alert quietly posted this week, the agency says: The vulnerability of systems to damage or snooping by using web browser cookies is essentially nonexistent. Cookies can only tell a web server if you have been there before and can pass short bits of information (such as a user number) from the web server back to itself the next time you visit. Most cookies last only until you quit your browser and then are destroyed. A second type of cookie known as a persistent cookie has an expiration date and is stored on your disk until that date. A persistent cookie can be used to track a user's browsing habits by identifying him whenever he returns to a site. Information about where you come from and what web pages you visit already exists in a web server's log files and could also be used to track users browsing habits, cookies just make it easier. The agency also says: The popular rumors about web cookies describe them as programs that can scan your hard drive and gather information about you including: passwords, credit card numbers, and a list of the software on your computer. None of this is close to the truth. My guess is that these wild rumors will continue to float around for a long time, regardless of what the U.S. Government or anyone else says. Human nature seems to force us to look for sinister motives in everything we do not understand. If you receive a message warning you about the "dangers" of cookies, ask yourself one question: "Really?" The full text of the government announcement is long and very detailed. It provides an in-depth explanation of the operation of cookies. To read the full story, look at: http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/bulletins/i-034.shtml ==============================================================