I have this same problem with php and Ive seen something about this on this mailing list...i think it has to do with the setting "register_globals" in the php.ini...i havent tried it yet, but lt me know how it works...ive also seen something on register_vars...but from what i understand, thats automatically turned on anyhow. Hope this helps ~Jeff i'm using php4.0.5 on apache 1.3.14 (win32) in win2000. when i was under win98 i was able to use the auto variable parsing of php, but now after i have installed win2000 it no longer works, i've upgraded apache and php since then, and i have checked and .conf and .ini files, and all are correct a simple <? echo "num is " . $blah; ?> with address http://x.x.x.x/?blah=1 doesn't even work, only says 'num is ' any ideas/tips/suggestions on this would be appreciated...