where are session variables stored on client

[DC Gringo]

I was under the impression that when I create session variables such as
session("myVar1"), they get stored on the client in a cookie. When I look
in my Temporary Internet Files directory for the cookie, I don't see
anything. Am I looking in the right place? Here are my session state
settings, they are default:


<!-- SESSION STATE SETTINGS
By default ASP.NET uses cookies to identify which requests belong to a
particular session.
If cookies are not available, a session can be tracked by adding a session
identifier to the URL.
To disable cookies, set sessionState cookieless="true".
-->


<sessionState mode="InProc" stateConnectionString="tcpip=127.0.0.1:42424"
sqlConnectionString="data source=127.0.0.1;Trusted_Connection=yes"
cookieless="false" timeout="20"/>

 

[Eliyahu Goldin]

Session variables are stored on the server. What is stored in a cookie is
the session id. It is used to restore the session variables on the server
when client's postback arrives.

Eliyahu

 

[Greg Burns]

I believe the only thing stored on the client will be your session ID in a
cookie. The actual data is on the server. The server links the data to the
client via that id.

If you set cookieless="true" in web.config, your session ID will be embedded
in the URL.

Not sure, but wouldn't the session cookie be stored C:\Documents and
Settings\<user>\Cookies?

Greg

 

[Scott Allen]

Not sure, but wouldn't the session cookie be stored C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Cookies?

I believe you'll only find persistent cookies on the hard drive. 'session'
cookies are only kept around in memory (and I'm using session in a generic
sense).

 

[DC Gringo]

Is there anyway I can look at these in-memory session cookies?

_____
DC G

 

[Scott Allen]

Yes, one easy tool is ieHttpHeaders:

http://www.blunck.info/iehttpheaders.html

This will show any Set-Cookie headers coming from the server and any cookies
the browser sends along to the server with a request. HTH!

 

[WJ]

<sessionState mode="InProc" stateConnectionString="tcpip=127.0.0.1:42424"
sqlConnectionString="data source=127.0.0.1;Trusted_Connection=yes"
cookieless="false" timeout="20"/>

Change the "Inproc" to "SQLServer" and click here to install SQL/State
Server http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311209

The above link shows you how to install Persitence State for Asp.Net
application. Once done, logon to your web site, do a few things. Then
finally, use SQL/Analyzer to view your Asp.Net states (the database name is
"ASPSTATE", I believe or you want to view the install script to be sure what
it is called).

John

 

[Joerg Jooss]

Yes, one easy tool is ieHttpHeaders:

http://www.blunck.info/iehttpheaders.html

This will show any Set-Cookie headers coming from the server and any
cookies the browser sends along to the server with a request. HTH!

Actually, any old HTTP proxy will do. Fiddler is good & free:
www.fiddlertool.com.

Cheers,