How does a website recognise me?

Question

I've been using a chat website for a while (irrelevant which one), that has just "banned" me. I've never had to provide login detaisl of any sort, except a "nickname", which can be different every time you go on to the site. Now, irrespective of which ISP i'm on, or where geographically I'm located, or which browser I use ( IE or safari), the "ban" is still in place. The only common factor is my laptop. How does the site identify me?

Answer 1

If you've used both browsers with the "banned" account before now, it's probably just a cookie. Clear cookies and it should be okay. I'm not entirely sure I really want to be helping you to circumvent a ban, mind you... but if the site's banning policy is so crude, they're clearly not taking bans very seriously.

Answer 2

Check your cookies - including possibly flash cookies?

Answer 3

Most likely by a cookie it set on your computer which contains an id linked to "you". Every time you go to the site, the value in the cookie is checked and it recognises it as you. I'd guess it's assuming that only one person per computer will be using their site at once.

Answer 4

Wow!! what quick answers!! Thanks all. By the way, I'm not trying to circumvent the ban, just curious as to how its happening. I've cleared cookies but it still happens, I'll investigate flash cookies further though. Thanks again.