title: ASP.NET cookie expiration time is always 1/1/0001 12:00 AM
body: <p>I'm setting the cookie expiration using the following code:</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <pre><code>// remove existing cookies.
  request.Cookies.Clear();
  response.Cookies.Clear();
  
  // ... serialize and encrypt my data ...
  
  // now set the cookie.
  HttpCookie cookie = new HttpCookie(AuthCookieName, encrypted);
  cookie.Expires = DateTime.Now.Add(TimeSpan.FromHours(CookieTimeOutHours));
  cookie.HttpOnly = true;
  response.Cookies.Add(cookie);
  
  // redirect to different page
  </code></pre>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>When I read the cookie timeout in the other page I'm getting 1/1/0001 12:00 AM. If someone can help me figure out the problem, I'll appreciate it. I'm using ASP.NET 3.5</p>
  
  <p>ok. after reading the links from Gulzar, it appears that I cannot check cookie.Expires on the HttpRequest at all? Because the links seem to suggest that cookie.Expires is always set to DateTime.MinValue because the server can never know the actual time on the client machine? So this means I have to store the time inside the cookie myself and check it? Is my understanding correct?</p>
  
  <p>thanks
  Shankar</p>