Help with building index page logically

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My index page will have content for both people that are already logged in and for people who are not logged in.

My index page will have a place to login.

I'll be using sessions (for short term vistors) and cookies (for long-term visitors) for logging in.

If they check the "Remember Me" box, I'll place a cookie with a tempID that ties to their userID in a temporary table entry.

If they don't check it, I'll use sessions.

 

Here's where I'm starting to get confused.  At the beginning of the index page, should I be checking to see if sessions or cookies exist?

 

Technically, only one should exist, right?

 

They will either be logging in at a public computer (possibly not checking remember me) or they will be logging in at home (checking remember me)

 

Wamp server phpadmin 5.2.6

 

 

 

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Actually, I just realized, I need to store more in the cookie besides a uniqueID, otherwise, all someone would have to do is keep hitting my site with a uniqueID in a cookie, until they get lucky and take over a user.

So, if they check "Remember Me" I'll store a uniqueID and a md5(password + some value).

Then store both of those in the cookie and a table that ties it to their userID.

 

Does that sound like it would be somewhat secure?