Homepage User Settings - The Best Method?

[username]

Hi all, with the release of IE8 coming soon, there is discussion about the new InPrivate feature which will apparently, similar to a session object, empty of all cookie data from the browsing session once the browser closes. I have a requirement to build a Home Page, whereby a user (not logged in), can edit what shows on their homepage, similar to bbc.co.uk's homepage, but am concerned if I base the settings of this on cookies, this could be a disaster for many users when IE8 is launched.

Unless I have misread whehther the InPrivate feature is turned on as the default (what I believe to be true), and is not a feature which CAN be activated, this may be a problem for something like this, if you want to hold settings for future browsing. Other options that I can think of are:

- Database storage of settings using IP as identifier
- XML based solutions

...or some help from the WebMasterWold.com forums.

If you have any ideas, as to the best method, your help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[jatar_k]

you can't use IP because it could identify many people and they would all be editing each other's settings

no login or no cookie == no settings

there isn't much else you can use reliably to uniquely identify any given person/computer