You might find websites’ cookies unappetizing

Q: This may be a naive question, but I have often wondered: If I have multiple tabs open and I am signed into several websites, can one website track another? For example, if I am signed into my bank account, am I making myself vulnerable to the other sites?

— Deborah Thomases, Richmond

A: Can one website you have open track another? It depends on what you mean by “track.”

When you visit a website, if your browser is configured to allow cookies — small pieces of code that record information about your computer’s configuration and how you have used the website — to be stored on your computer, that website may also leave “tracking cookies.” Tracking cookies record where you go on the internet after the cookie is loaded. The website can’t see what you do on other websites or access any data. It simply records where you go.

A tracking cookie might record, for example, that you went to your bank’s website but it would not have access to what you did on that site. And, in fact, most if not all banks require secure, encrypted connections. So even if a hacker was able to record your transmissions with the bank they would not be able to decode those transmissions.

Still, having a tracking cookie reporting to a company where I go on the internet is creepy enough to me that I don’t allow cookies to be saved on my computer. That does mean that I forgo some conveniences. I have to log into websites that require a login each time I visit and the websites won’t remember any custom configurations of the site I’ve made.

Q: I saw your recent column about losing internet connection. I, too, have been experiencing this momentary loss of internet connection exactly as described in the question, but was disappointed to see you only addressed Wi-Fi connection problems.

My computer is connected to a modem via cable. I upgraded my modem and now it just momentarily loses the connection but then re-connects to the same web page after a few seconds. I also replaced the cable.

— Al

A: While dropped internet connections are common with Wi-Fi, they are pretty rare with wired Ethernet connections. But they do occur and they can be caused by a number of different things. The most likely cause is one you’ve already checked on — a bad Ethernet cable connection. Dropped connections can also result from software problems either on your computer or your internet service provider’s servers.

If other computers connected to your network also have the same problem, the cause is likely a problem with the modem, the cable connecting the modem to your internet service provider or with the service provider’s equipment.

If the problem is only with your primary computer, the first thing to do is to call up a command prompt — which you can do by clicking on the Windows icon in the lower left hand corner of the display and scrolling down to the Windows System heading — and then entering the following commands (and hitting the Enter key after each command):

Ipconfig /release
Ipconfig /renew
Ipconfig /flushdns
Ipconfig /registerdns
Nbtstat -rr
Netsh winsock reset
Netsh int ipv4 reset

If the problem persists, I’d suspect a hardware problem with the client network adapter in the computer.