How To Enable Cookies

Enabling cookies and JavaScript in your browser

To access the Luminis system, your browser must support non-persistent cookies and JavaScript, and have Java enabled. To set your browser to support these requirements, click the link below that corresponds to your browser version and follow the instructions. For convenience, you may want to print this page so that you have it handy as you configure your browser.

Internet Explorer for Windows

To enable cookies and JavaScript in Internet Explorer browsers, use the following procedure:

From the Tools menu, select Internet Options. You see the Internet Options dialog that provides a number of tabs that allow you to set your browser preferences.
To enable session cookies, click the Privacy tab.
From the Settings section of the tab, click Advanced.
Locate and click the checkbox next to Always allow session cookies
To enable JavaScripting, click the Security tab.
Locate the Custom area of the Security tab, and click the Custom Level button.
From the Security Settings dialog that opens, scroll through the options until you see Scripting.
Check the radio buttons next to Enable Active Scripting and Scripting of Java applets.
Click OK to accept scripting and cookie handling changes and close the Security Settings window.
From the Internet Options dialog, click Apply to effect settings then OK to close the dialog.

Netscape and Mozilla users on Windows or Macintosh

To enable cookies and JavaScript in Netscape and Mozilla browsers, use the following procedure:

From the Edit menu (Windows) or Netscape menu (Macintosh), select Preferences.
From the Category menu, click open the Privacy & Security category.
Select Cookies.
From the Cookies page, click the radio button next to Enable all cookies. If you elect to accept cookies based on privacy settings, use a Medium level.
From the Category menu, click open the Advanced category.
Select Scripts & Plugins.
Locate the Enable Javascript section of the window and click the checkbox next to Navigator.
Click OK to apply changes and close the Preferences dialog.

Safari users on Macintosh

To enable cookies and JavaScript in Safari browsers on the Macintosh platform, use the following procedure:

From the Macintosh file menu, select Safari and then Preferences.
From the Preferences dialog that opens, select the Security option (padlock icon).
Under the Web Content options, click the checkbox next to Enable Javascript.
Under the Accept Cookies option, check the radio button for Always.
Click OK and close the Preferences dialog to apply changes.

Firefox users on Windows and Macintosh

To enable cookies and JavaScript in Firefox browsers, use the following procedure:

From the Tools menu (Windows) or Firefox menu (Macintosh), select Options.
From the Options dialog that opens, select the Content option (globe icon).
Click the checkbox next to Enable Javascript.
Select the Privacy option (padlock icon)
Under the Cookies tab, check the Checkbox for Allow sites to set Cookies.
Click OK and close the Options dialog to apply changes.

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How to enable Cookies

Cookies are small text files which web servers can place on your computer when you visit their website.

Cookies are typically used to help websites remember that you've logged in, or perhaps to store your personal preferences for that website.

Cookies can also be used to track your behaviour (and particularly to track your behaviour across a number of different websites). Third-party cookies are often used to do this, and a lot of web users choose to disable third party cookies to help prevent them being tracked. To find out if your browser is allowing Third-Party cookies, Visit our third-party cookies detection page.

You need to make your own decision about what kinds of Cookies you want to allow.

A lot of websites require that Cookies are enabled for their functionality to work. Here are a series of guides to help you configure your settings regarding Cookies.

How to configure Cookies in Safari on iPad

This guide will step you through the process of configuring Cookies in Safari on iPad.

The screenshots are taken with iOS 7, however these instructions are the same for other versions of Safari on iOS.

1. Tap the "Settings" icon on the home screen

Return to the Home Screen by pressing the round button underneath the screen. You will see the grid of icons. Then, find the "Settings" icon and tap on it.

2. Scroll the Settings sidebar until you can see the Safari icon

The Settings app doesn't show the Safari icon on the side bar by default, so it's necessary to slide it a bit until you can see it.

3. Tap the "Safari" menu option

The right side of the screen will change to show you the various settings options available for Safari.

4. Find the "Block Cookies" setting

You will now see a number of settings for Safari displayed on the right. Scroll down until you see the "Block Cookies" item. Tap on it.

5. Choose your preferred Cookies setting

You are now presented with four options for your Cookies preference.

"Always Block" and "Always Allow" are pretty straight forward - you can either universally allow or block sites from putting cookies on your iPad.

The other two options are a little more complex. In a sense, they both relate to allowing or blocking "third-party cookies", although the distinction between the two given choices is fairly subtle.

Referring to Apple's Help Documentation on the matter seems to indicate that the "Allow from Current Website Only" choice means strictly that only the website you are viewing is allowed to set cookies on your iPad.

"Allow from Websites I visit". Ok this one's complicated: Say there's a website that you normally visit, but you're not on that website right now, you're on another website, but that website has embedded content from the first website. With this setting, that content will be allowed to set and read cookies on your computer.

In other words, say you normally visit YouTube, but you're not on YouTube right now, you're reading someone's blog. And they've embedded a YouTube video in one of their posts. With this setting, because you normally visit YouTube (even though you're not on it right now) YouTube is permitted to create and read cookies at that point.

This is the default setting and is slightly more permissive than the other "Allow from Current Website Only" setting.

You need to pick which option you want to enable. The default "Allow from Current Website Only" is probably fine for most needs. If you're a little more cautious but still want most websites to work, you might select "Allow from Current Website Only".

6. You have configured your Cookies settings

Congratulations, you just configured Cookies in Safari on iPad.

How to enable Cookies in Chrome

This guide will step you through the process of enabling Cookies in Google Chrome.

The screenshots below are taken from Mac OS X, but the process is the same on Windows.

1. Click the "Customize and Control" button

This will reveal a menu with lots of options. One of them will be named "Settings".

2. Select the "Settings" menu item

The Settings screen will now appear.

3. Search for the Cookies settings

As you type in "Cookies" (it's not case sensitive) you will see Chrome start to change what's shown on the settings page. It will reveal the "Privacy" section and highlight two buttons with two yellow "Cookies" callouts.

Click the "Content settings..." button.

You are then taken directly to the Cookies setting.

4. Choose your preferred Cookies settings

You can now change your Cookies setting to what you prefer.

Typically (especially if you are already following this guide!) you want to enable cookies in Chrome by selecting the first option - "Allow local data to be set (recommended)". This will allow websites to store cookies (and other data!) on your computer for as long as the websites want to.

An alternative to this setting is to choose "Keep local data only until you quit your browser". This will allow normal cookie functionality (eg. logging into websites with a username and password), however every time you close and reopen your web browser, you would need to log in to the website again. This setting can also help (but not necessarily eliminate) advertising companies tracking your behaviour across various browsing sessions.

And of course, if you want to disable Cookies altogether, choose the "Block sites from setting any data" option.

One other option to consider is to "Block third-party cookies and site data". This means (basically) that any website you directly visit is allowed to store cookies on your computer, but any "third-party" website (eg the server that places advertising banners on the site) is not allowed to place a cookie to track you. Note that this will not stop the advertising appearing, just (hopefully) decrease the amount of tracking they perform.

5. Click the "Done" button to close the Cookies settings

Congratulations, you just configured Cookies in Chrome. Click here to check if Cookies are enabled.

How to enable Cookies in Internet Explorer

This guide will step you through the process of enabling Cookies in Internet Explorer.

1. Select the "Tools" menu

2. Select "Internet Options"

3. Select the "Privacy" tab

4. When Cookies are disabled...

There is more than one setting in Internet Explorer which can block or disable cookies and cause some issues with websites.

In the default settings for Privacy and Cookies, there is a slider control at the top of the Privacy window which can be dragged up or down to select varying levels of Cookie security.

If you see this sliding bar on the left, you can drag it up and down and note the description on the right-hand side change to describe the level of security provided.

It ranges from Block All Cookies to Accept All Cookies. The default setting is Medium, which provides a balance of being permissive enough with Cookies to have a good experience on the internet while still blocking certain types of Cookies which could leak private information about you.

If you see the following message: "Custom - Advanced or imported settings" (shown in the next screenshot), it means that custom settings have been used instead of just dragging to select a custom privacy level.

5. Enabling Cookies by resetting to default settings

Generally speaking, if you're having problems using websites because your Cookie settings have been changed, the easiest way to fix this is simply by resetting to Internet Explorer's default Privacy/Cookies setting.

This addresses the situation whether you've dragged your Privacy Settings slider up or down, or clicked Advanced and created your own custom settings. This is the easiest way to get them back to baseline.

This is done by clicking the button marked Default.

This should fix most or all of your Cookies problems.

If you need or want to exercise fine grained control over your cookies policy - for example allowing or blocking Third Party Cookies - click the Advanced button and override the automatic cookie handling by choosing your own settings.

6. Cookies are now enabled

Congratulations, you just configured Cookies in Internet Explorer.

How to enable Cookies in Firefox

This guide will step you through the process of enabling Cookies in Firefox.

1. Click the menu button

In both Windows and OS X, the menu button will be in the top right-hand corner of Firefox.

2. Select the "Preferences"/"Options" menu item

If you're using Mac OS X, it will be called Preferences. If you are using Windows, it will be called Options.

The Settings screen will now appear.

3. Click the "Privacy" menu item

4. Choose your preferred Cookies/History setting

Firefox groups the Cookies settings under the concept of "browser history". In order to change your browser's cookies policy, you have to configure the browser history settings as well.

When you click on the "Firefox will:" drop-down menu, you will see three choices.

Remember history Typically (especially if you are already following this guide!) you want to enable cookies in Firefox by selecting this option. It will also cause Firefox to keep a list of the sites you visit in Browser History
Never remember history Alternatively, you can disable cookies altogether by selecting this option. Firefox will also not keep a list of the sites you have visited in your Browser History.
Use custom setting for history will allow you more fine-grained control about what Firefox allows and remembers.

You now have the choice of enabling or disabling certain history features, including form history, browser history and most relevant: whether or not to Accept cookies from sites.

You also have some options regarding blocking third-party cookies if you want to configure that too.

You can also configure how long Firefox will keep the cookies it sets.

5. Close the Preferences/Options tab

Once you have configured your preferences, you can simply close this tab and continue using Firefox.

Congratulations, you just configured Cookies in Firefox.

How to enable Cookies in Safari

This guide will step you through the process of configuring Cookies in Safari.

1. Click the "Safari" menu, choose "Preferences"

Make sure you have a Safari window open and active; you will see the "Safari" menu in the top left of your screen. Click it, and then click the "Preferences" item.

2. Click on the "Privacy" tab

The contents of the Privacy tab screen will now appear.

Choose your preferred Cookies setting

On the Privacy Preferences tab, you will see the "Block cookies and other website data: choices.

If you select "Never block cookies", you will get the most permissive Cookies policy - all Cookies will be allowed, including third-party cookies from advertisers and web-trackers.

If you select "Always block cookies", Safari won't allow any cookies to be stored, however you will probably encounter problems with some websites; for example being unable to log in.

If you select "block From third parties and advertisers", you will get standard cookie functionality while preventing "third party" servers (eg the type that place Advertising banners) from setting cookies.

3. Close the Preferences window

Once you have configured your cookie blocking preferences, you can simply close this window and continue using Safari.

Congratulations, you just configured Cookies in Safari.

Safari and Third-Party Cookies

After extensive testing and debugging, it seems that when you disable Third-Party cookies in Safari, it will still hold on to them and keep using them until you restart Safari (or perhaps even Reset Safari).

So if you choose to disable third-party cookies in Safari, make sure you restart (and preferably Reset Safari) to ensure that it doesn't keep using any third party cookies it may have cached.

How to block or allow Cookies in Safari on an iPhone or iPod

This guide will step you through the process of configuring your Cookies settings in Safari on an iPhone or iPod.

The screenshots are taken with iOS 7, however these instructions are the same for other versions of Safari on iOS.

1. Tap the "Settings" icon on the home screen

Return to the Home Screen by pressing the round button underneath the screen. You will see the grid of icons. Then, find the "Settings" icon and tap on it.

2. Scroll the Settings page down to the bottom

The Settings screen is longer than the actual screen of the iPhone or iPad, so to reach the "Safari" section you will need to scroll the screen down a bit by dragging on the screen with your finger.

3. Tap the "Safari" menu option

4. Go to the "Privacy & Security" section. Tap "Block Cookies"

5. Choose your preferred Cookies setting

You are now presented with four options for your Cookies preference.

"Always Block" and "Always Allow" are pretty straight forward - you can either universally allow or block sites from putting cookies on your iPhone.

The other two options are a little more complex. In a sense, they both relate to allowing or blocking "third-party cookies", although the distinction between the two given choices is fairly subtle.

This is the default setting and is slightly more permissive than the other "Allow from Current Website Only" setting.

6. You have configured your Cookies settings

Congratulations, you just configured Cookies in Safari on iPhone.