A central server used to generate, for example, web application instances to remote users over a computer network, such as the Internet, is implemented with new programming techniques by which user and session management is made independent of the web application instance. The prior methods, by which a new user or session cookie is generated for each user request, is replaced by techniques wherein a single session cookie is provided to a user for all requests in a single user session. A user database is maintained by the central server which stores the session cookie and correlates it to a web application instance, identified by system variables stored in the database, rather than with application variables maintained by an application instance.