what are ways my php page can remeber a user from before ?

cookies and sessions
depends on "before"

as in user goes to www.fake.com then 3 weeks late rlogs on again and his prefferences are remeebred
sessions only work within the session - obiously
so cookies are the only option
then its either cookies or you save the settings in a db, and get them again by having the user log on, possibly aided by a cookie that remembers the login data
ah ok thx