Ulimit, setting max open files, temporary and permanently

You tried :
me$ ulimit -n 4096
and you still have 1024 max open files ?

You tried to add the line in /etc/security/limits.conf :
me hard nofile 4096
and you still have 1024 max open files ?

After that, you tried :
me$ ulimit -n 4096
but on the next login, max open files got back to 1024 ?

So, add the following line in /etc/security/limits.conf :
me soft nofile 4096
it sets permanently max open files soft limit from 1024 to 4096 !