Browser Best Practices
You use a browser every day to check your email, look at social media, look at webpages, and log in to accounts. With every transaction, your browser tends to hold onto information, and over time, it could cause problems with logging in or bringing up websites. It’s always a good idea to clear out the cache and cookies on a regular basis. The drawback to this is that your saved usernames and passwords may be deleted and you’ll need to re-enter them. But on the plus side, your privacy is more secure and your browser will work better.
Cache and cookies are two different forms of temporary storage kept on a user’s computer to improve the user's experience and the performance of web pages. Although both store data on the computer, they serve different purposes.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small files that contain information useful to a web site—such as password, preferences, browser, IP Address, date and time of visit, etc. Every time the user loads the website, the browser sends the cookie back to the server to notify the website of the user’s previous activity.
What is cache?
Web cache is an information technology for the temporary storage (caching) of web documents, such as HTML pages and images, to reduce bandwidth usage, server load, and perceived lag. Cache is just a collection of data downloaded to help display a web page. If not cleared on a regular basis. your browser experience could become compromised, with unexpected results and the web pages not working properly.
To get the most out of the browser you use, we recommend clearing the cache and cookies on your browser often. If you’re having a tough time logging in, try clearing your cookies. If your account isn’t loading correctly, you aren’t seeing what you expect, or there’s an error, try clearing the cache to make sure you’re seeing the latest info. And it’s usually better to just do both at the same time to eliminate any issues. We recommend using the latest version of Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, or Firefox.
Most browsers work in a similar way, but attached are the major browsers and how to clear cache and delete cookies for them. It is best practice to run the latest version of your favorite browser—keeping it updated helps pages load better and gives you more security.