title: Storing string in session variable where mode is StateServer
body: <p>If I store a string value in my session variable, do I need to serialize or deserialize it? I read that when you use in your <code>web.config</code></p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;sessionState mode="StateServer" 
                stateConnectionString="tcpip=127.0.0.1:42424"
                stateNetworkTimeOut="60"
  /&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>You need to serialize before you can store the value in session variable and you would then deserialize when you retrieve the value. I wonder if for example, you just place the string value to a session like:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Session("MyStringVar") = "MyStringValue"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and when you retrieve it, you could just do:</p>
  
  <pre><code>DIm strVal as String
  strVal = Ctype(Session("MyStringVar"), String)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Also, is the timeout specified for that is 60, is it in minutes or hours?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks.</p>