shadowx

well i dabbled slightly in Wicca and Witchcraft and im hoping to get back into it very soon as it came naturally so any advice below isnt concreted stuff its just what i would do and try.but first some info on lucid dreams. Lucid dreams aren't spiritual so much as they are psychological. Basically, as you found out you take control of a dream. Now technically this wouldn't allow you to enter another's dreams. you would instead control your dreams and "imagine" them into your dream, but they wouldn't really be there... so you might dream of meeting them but they wouldn't be dreaming the same dream. you have simply created a dream. Its useful, no doubt. And if you want to learn this technique apparently you should make a habit out of something unusual... if you NEVER wear a watch get into the habit of checking for a watch on your wrist....you could also imagine the watch being there, maybe by pretending to read the time or adjust the position of the watch. The idea is that, when you dream this habit will carry on in your dream so you would look for the watch, of course if you see a watch there you are dreaming. Now the trick is to remain enough "sense" while dreaming that you realise that isnt right and therefore are dreaming. difficult no doubt. another way is just to remain sense to double check everything. If you have a pet elephant ask yourself do you REALLY have a pet elephant... if the answer is no yet you appear to have it as a pet then you are dreaming. Still difficult.Now as for spells... Its a bit tricky.. it depends what kind of craft you follow.. being from wicca i would tend to use much more safety around me and maybe a crystal or candle.. maybe not a candle as you'll be sleeping... stick with a crystal! I guess i would first ask my spirit guide to be with me and help guide me to meet whoever i want to meet in another place while i sleep. I would specifically ask to be joined in a dream but instead to meet them in another place with no harm to anyone. I would probably meditate for a decent time on that person and where i want to meet them. I believe in the astral planes and so i would request my guide to take me to a safe place within a safe plane (of existence) and protect me while there and return me home if things get bad or when its a good time to leave. Of course get the other person to do the same. Also as i believe in the power of two forces (male and female, sometimes embodied by a god and goddess) i would ask these powers, whatever they may be, for protection and guidance. In addition i would probably try to make a "psychic shield" (Google it if in doubt) that would protect me. then i would sleep probably.. I wouldn't expect too much the first time....Maybe just a feeling of their presence in a dream, maybe you almost sense them in a different character in your dream, or maybe you dream of them but they didnt have the same dream. Thats fine, just keep trying and eventually you will have similar dreams and eventually i suspect VERY similar dreams, i wouldnt expect identical dreams as i would consider the dream just scientific thing whereas the sense of each others presence and such to be of the spiritual kind EG you have got close to each other buy your mind has invented the dream for two reasons: to make the meeting more plausible, like a visualization, and its a natural thing during sleep.The problem is you wont be in much control i expect so lucid dreaming would be very useful. Personally first i would try to meditating on that person and getting them to do the same and together create a room in your minds and send that room out to the other person, both create the same room, just two doors and a rug, create it perfectly in your mind and send it out to another plane or to each other and get to the point where you can see that room perfectly at the click of your fingers. and now put yourself in that room, and get the other person to do the same, keep deep in meditation and try to "feel" each other there. dont imagine, just search for them. you can then try some basic telepathy with Tarot cards, colours or anything and keep practising and i think this would give better results. Remember to protect yourselves though. If i were to cast a spell or just say a line or two i would always end it with "An it harm none, so mote it be." Just to make sure that if it harms no-one make it happen, if its gonna harm someone, dont let it happen. The reason i say this is because my mum was on a circle where they use to contact spirits, and sometimes, my dad, a total skeptic, would see shadows and jokingly say "is that one of yours" and it most likely was a spirit, of course they never did any harm but i can assure that they can, and that is why my mum stopped. I think some bad stuff happened and it scared her (which isnt easy when it comes to spirits etc...) or she just got a little worried how deep they were getting and she stopped. And if you are going to be sending your presence or spirit to meet someone on another plane its likely you will stay in the lower ones ( if you dont take the "planes of existence" theory then this is meaningless..) and the lower ones are where the living, and the less powerful or pure spirits reside. EG the "bad" ones and i would imagine it's not too hard for them to ruin your little meeting and follow you home as it were so be very careful. Thats why i say about the shield and spirit guide etc.. Call on whichever entities you have faith in to protect you because its unlikely but it could go wrong. Dont be scared though just careful... I realize how long this is so ill stop now. I could go on all day...Good luck!

Im no doctor but i would imagine one of two things... Either plenty of cool drinks to sooth it or plenty of warm, but not hot drinks and not too much talking but if you keep silent i imagine it could get worse, just dont over do it!Try warm orange or lemon squash, it really helps take away the pain of a cold related sore throat so it might help. As for longer term try some painkillers and a thick drink to provide a coating, maybe some sorer throat sweets with a liquid centre as they seem to help a lot and in general plenty of fluids to help it heal.As im said im no doctor but think what your body would naturally want. EG soothing drinks, water and rest rather than chemicals unless it hurts a lot.

another review to add to the list Im gonna focus on Will Smith as an actor and try not to focus on the story line though it is pretty good. I think in this film will Smith has excelled himself in terms of acting ability... He is AMAZING in this film (no i don't fancy him lol) He can portray so many emotions. At first you see a determination and a sort of acceptance of the conditions he is in. He has accepted the solitary "confinement" as it were but, as said already, he has the hints of insanity thanks to the in-depth research by the creators by talking to prisoners who have been in solitary, and psychologists and virtually anyone who's been in solitary for a long time to really get his act right. And it works perfectly, for example during the film it becomes apparent that due to the lack of humans he has done several things. Hes set up manikins across the city in places he visits such as the video rental store and he talks to them in a way that leaves you wondering if hes sane and does it to amuse himself or if hes mad. Also from the prison research, and perhaps for his survival he exercises every day as a regime and talks to his dog excessively. It really is convincing.Along with slight madness and happiness he is excellent at displaying sadness. Im not a soppy type, i love episodes of soaps where someone dies etc... but his act is brilliant, its more than just tears, you can almost feel the pain hes going through thanks to the immersion in the story line. And despite what i though the film is in fact slightly scary. and again i dont get scared in films easilly. I love SAW and Hostel and Ghosty films etc.. but the fear that Smith shows is so real somehow. He transfers his fear onto you. Untill you see the film you wont understand. It really is amazing. And the technical mastery is rather good too. The only thing that lets the film down is the CGI "zombie" like people. They are too smooth, almost blurry instead of having gravelly features that you would have if you lived in their conditions for 4 years. But, given the fact that almost all of the city scenes were actually filmed by closing parts of NY city and filming them "in the field" the city scenes are amazing. I wont spoil it too much but the opening scenes of an empty, silent Ny city are amazing, so unreal yet so real at the same time. the only scene that was completey CGI was one scene involving an explosion.. i cant say more than that without spoiling it buy check out howstuffworks.com and search for the film title, and you will read some very interesting stuff about the film and its creation. Which is where ive learned most of this info from. As for the story line... in general the whole "virus goes mad, people turn into zombies, start eating people, if bitten you get infected, cant go in sunlight, someone invents miracle cure" is just stupid... HOWEVER the story line of I Am Legend isnt like that.. the zombies aren't zombies, the way they were "zombified" is totally believable *slight spoiler........* ************** Instead of being zombies the infected are actually just blood crazed... they are hell bent on aggression and eating and getting blood rather than the whole "oh they're zombies" and instead of being weak and stupid they learn and are powerful thanks to their extremely high metabolism, breathing, heartbeat and berserk style mindset, they actually end up copying a trap Smiths character made and capture him using it which shows intelligence*** end of spoiler***so an overall rating... Its difficult. For acting Smith scores a 10/10 and i dont give out many 10's! for technical/research/creation of the film and story they deserve a 9.5 I think that by adding another 10 minutes a more scientific explanation of the virus and why it affects people like this and giving a plausibly explanation would really improve the immersion in the story. For CGI and filming techniques they get a 9. some of the camera work is filmed with a "head bob" style effect which made my eyes hurt and the CGI of infected people could be better, they look like gollum... for storyline itself they also get a 9.5 for the same reason of not enough depth to the details of the virus. In total a 9.5 definitely worth the cinema ticket price and on DVD too, and i very rarely buy DVDs! SEE THIS FILM! Its brilliant. And if Will Smith doesnt win awards for this film i will be very shocked, its the best acting I've ever seen, not a single flaw. Well done Will!

Ah why not! Happy birthday! hope its better than last years!

Sonesay is right, more space is only available on paid hosting. what im interested in is why anyone except a large business or site with many downloads needs more than 150mb space, and if you mean more BW then the same is generally true as a new site will never get that much BW for a few months. My advice would be: If you are starting a new website go for the free hosting to get started, get the kinks ironed out and judge your BW and space requirements. If you have a big website with lots of visitors head on over to Xisto - Web Hosting.com (owned by Xisto just like T17, very reputable and highly recommended, No i dont work for them! ) they have great options for less than $40 a year which are suitable for medium sized websites.If you need lots of space due to downloads etc... Remember that T17 (and as far as i know Xisto - Web Hosting.com) DONT allow copyrighted items (Eg music downloads for which you dont own the copyright) or adult/offensive material and of course no Warez or other malware, cracked or hacked software etc...

As the topic title suggests im looking for info on the safekom.com website and company. Im looking for a usb ide 2.5 HDD caddy (an enclosure for a bog standard 2.5 inch laptop HDD that ports it to USB to use as an external device) and this website seems to offer what im looking for for only ?4 (about $7.5-$8) which is similar to the ?5 one i saw on ebay. The problem is that there is a website called softcom.cn in china which seems to offer very similar products and it seems odd that the website i found is the same URL but with a K instead of C which could be a scam playing on a mistype by the user. Things that make me suspicious are: The URL, the price (in most shops its at least double what they're offering), the support is all by email and "live" support which is offline... and there is no address or any contact info that is specific or identifiable as suchI'm unwilling to buy anything from them until I've heard more about them. I searched google and 33 out of 34 results were from Ebay... the one that wasn't was from some foreign country. Not so good.so have any of you had dealings with them or can recommend them?

It should work fine. I made a little system in a very similar way and it worked fine. Its also good as its simplicity will eliminate a lot of security risks. Systems like this that use DBs have the added risk of SQL injections etc so this method will be a lot more secure.Now you can develop the code more and perhaps make a whole CMS out of it! Good work

In line with validating your webpage using the validator suggested always make sure you test your pages in IE firefox and if you wish Opera to see how different it looks and then to sort it out with some CSS. You'd be amazed how different things look between IE and FF and i would imagine even more so than Opera because Opera is the most standards compliant.

Well chicken bacon pasta comes to mind... Yum but not healthy :(I live with my mum and brother and we all eat well to say the least so this would probably feed four, maybe five or 6 if you add salad and crusty bread too.Thou shall need:about 3-4 chicken breasts bone and skinlessSalt and Pepper to tasteEnough pasta to serve the number of people you want (pour into a serving bowl EG 4 times for four people Giving what you would consider a good portion)A jar of mayo (you will use about half a jar for my original serving size)Bacon (in small pieces)Optional:Sweetcorn or anything else you wantWhat to do:Well dice the chicken to bite size pieces and fry in a little salt and some pepper for flavour when nearly cooked add the bacon untill both are cooked and this will flavour the chicken nicely. Meanwhile cook the pasta in your usual way. Now simply mix the pasta, chicken, bacon, mayo and sweetcorn in a BIG bowl and serve. Very nice with some pepper on top, crusty bread and some ketchup!For a healthier option you could use ham instead of bacon, or leave it out totally and use low fat mayo. My mum always makes me and my bro cook this and we always have some left over, its rather filling :(Another thing to do with the leftover may is potato salad as an addition to salad dishesyou will need: Some baby/new potatoes, depending on how much you want to make. If its to go with salad go with 3-5 potatoes each (assuming they are rather small)MayoSpring onionsSalt & PepperOptional:Onion (for a stronger onion taste)Bacon, ham etc... a little garlic if you like itMaybe chivesmethod: boil the potatoes with the skin left on (clean them first if your worried about dirt) Chop into small bite-size pieces and mix the mayo and other ingredients into the mix.For best flavour refrigerate for a few hours beforehand or even overnight to allow the flavours to mingle with the mayoEnjoy :)Seeing as im here.....a chicken salad with potato salad:you will need:Potato salad (see above )Chicken breasts 1-2 each depending on how hungry you are!Lettuce, cucumber, grated carrot, spring onion, tomato and onion if you like ithoneyCrusty bread!Make the salad in the usual way. nothing special here. Grill the chicken breasts either on a flame grill device EG BBQ or on a George Forman grill style machine. To serve put a pile of salad on the plate, chuck the chicken on top, drizzle the whole lot with honey and then, if you like pepper which i do, add some FRESHLY GRATED pepper on top of the chicken for flavour and looks. a nice generous dollop of potato salad and a crusty roll is all that is needed. Even though i dont like salad much i do love this dish because of the chicken/honey/pepper combo. Its really nice, just don't smother the chicken with honey!

Well MS works is fairly terrible IMHO. It lacks a friendly interface and a hell of a lot of features so my advice is to go with Open Office as its got the features of word with the stability, security and ease of use (let alone the FREE price tag) of Open Source software

My answer is yes and my theory is this: As the sun burns and the matter within it changes forms into heavier elements some of the suns mass is turned into energy (remember E=mc2) and a greater amount is sent off into space in flares and solar storms etc... and so the mass of the sun is decreasing. Now some would say, and perhaps correctly, that the sun's mass is not getting less as meteors etc... crash into it and replenish its matter stores. However if im correct then the sun's gravitational pull is also decreasing and this would lead to all the planet's orbits getting further from the sun, UNLESS their orbit speed decreased (as centrifugal force stops the planets falling into the sun a slow down of their speed would mean this force is less so it could compensate for the loss of gravity) So according to my theory the earth and all other planets could well be drifting slightly. However i doubt it will have any effect for a very long time and we wouldnt notice it anyway. as for this: From your "location" information it says Wales which im assuming you mean the country attached to England In which case our warmer winters are provided by a current from the coasts of south America, the Gulf Stream i think its called. And its a ribbon of warm water that cones from south America to the coasts of Cornwall etc.. and warms those areas significantly all year round and of course it would affect Wales. If global warming takes effect this current could be affected as its powered by sinking cold water up north so the warm current could be stopped and as such the mild winters we have in the UK would go with it meaning much colder winters and this is a possible explanation. Our winters would be more like those in New York. Bad times.

I sorta suggested that but using a screenie of the code rather than the actual code on T17 as a screenie is a lot safer than having mal-code on the forums as its always possible there would be a leak. So i would say use a screenie instead of the code itself just in case!

Well methinks you could have the user upload the file to a temp directory on the server, then use PHP to open that file and read the contents to a variable, delete the original file and then copy the info from the variable into a webpage using FWRITE and then save and close that file. If you just wanted the user to input data into a form and then submit it and have it saved to a webpage then just use FOPEN and FWRITE to save the information, via variables, into the webpageThis is assuming i understood rightlyEDIT: This information is mainly for education etc.. If this is the first time you have written code that handles selling and buying then i highly suggest going with a pre-made code like those suggested above

Ah thanks for the Screenie, i found a hit on the second malware mentioned there, Trojan.Downloader.JS.Small.dn Interestingly though the only result i could find was by using "Trojan" to start it rather than "Troj" so maybe the online scan shortened the name, either way it sounds like the right thing. A short description can be found here http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ It is indeed a downloader as the name suggests, it seems to download an EXE which is then executed and thats the part to really worry about. Unfortunately it didnt have removal instructions but i have some suggestions now that we have a lead... The first is to try this AV program http://www.avira.com/en/downloads download the home personal one as its free. The reason i suggest this is that symantec and other big names seem to be oblivious to this as was found by the AV's you tried and the fact their security response sites didnt even recognise the malware name. However this AV company seem to have recognised it so i think its definitely worth a shot with this AV, you can always uninstall all these AV progs afterwards. If that doesnt work then i have another suggestion. The online scanner found two malware, possibly the same one just with a different name and one of the scanners that found it was the ClamAV scanner. Ive never heard of this scanner but ive done a google and found a windows download version of it: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ I know the website doesnt look much but its used by the online scan company and has been on *nix for years apparently so it seems legit and useful so give that a shot. Again i suggest this because it seems to be able to recognise the malware and hopefully remove it. I see.. Bad times.. So in theory that application should be good which means something else is infected... The problem is that we only know you are infected because you tried to upload a HTML file and as no AV so far has detected it you never know how many files are infected already... If you havent already got a firewall install Comodo firewall (google it, very reputable i use it on every machine i touch) and set it to the custom security level and if you get alerts for things like IM clients or Web browsers accept them but dont check the "remember my decision" box. If anything comes up with a red alert (you can tell because the top of the alert box will be red) deny it and if any programs access the internet when they shouldnt be (such as text editors and programs that work when you arent connected to the net) Deny them also but remember dont check the remember box. If you've already got a firewall then keep a close eye on it just in case something tries to download something you dont want. I have faith in the two AVs i suggested so give them a shot and see if they can catch it. If possible do all these scans in safe mode as Saint_Michael said. I've just seen his post and didnt realize it untill now... Seems odd how it got in there without me noticing! Anyway try his suggestions first as they seem to have more credibility and if they dont work then try mine

Well i googled the name along with many keywords and search symantec and similar security sites but i couldnt find a match, only similar malware EG Trojan.Downloader.something which could be related but thats not likely to yield many results... Is there no other information you have on it? How did you confirm its there? If it was from a virus scan do you have a screenie of the scan results or something like that? Another thing to consider is if its inside a HTML file the code should be human readable as to distribute itself the malware will most likely use Java or Javascript or other languages used to make websites which will then enable the attack on the unsuspecting user. Don't do this yet If nothing else works another option is to provide a screenie of the code of the HTML file if possible. I would want the mods/admins to check this thread first and make sure it isnt in violation of the ToS etc... and of course it could only be a screenie not a copy-paste of the actual code. But as i say, dont do this yet, let's see if anything comes up first. well if the malware cant be removed ( which i think it can eventually) then you could try deleting Web Page Maker and re-installing it as its possible the EXE has been infected which is why it copied bad code into all the HTML files made with it, if you havent already (but it sounds like you have) then use every AV software you've got to scan the Web Page Maker program folder as methinks this EXE or partner EXE's have been infected.

How long have you used this app and how many webpages have you made with it? the fact the malware that has infected the files is a Trojan Downloader Suggests to me that other files in your system are infected as malware generally takes three steps, Infection, multiplication/delete files etc... and then finally distribution and it seems this malware is either distributing or copying itself which means that its likely your PC is infected. I know a lot of things have been suggested but i suggest one free AV, Avast anti-virus, every PC i can i install it on so far its about 4 or 5 and its perfect so give that shot, download it by searching google, you dont NEED to register for this but you can do if you want to keep it, again this is free. Now once installed schedule a Boot Time Scan and restart, your PC will be searched before that damned malware has a chance to open its eyelids and hide itself and hopefully this will catch it. The other thing that you can try is a Hijackthis log, search google for that, download the app and run it then post the results here and if possible on their website and let the gurus see whats running. If neither of these find it then you must have a dormant infection, EG its infected the file but isnt doing anything else for the time being, or its brand new malware that hasnt been seen yet or its so small not many people have seen or registered it. The thing that concerns me is that you say you use an app that makes your HTML files, is this app a well known piece of kit like Fronpage or something like that or is it something you found while searching the net and have never heard of? If its the second then this app could be what planted the seed in the HTML file and you should get rid of it pronto! If nothing finds anything then delete the infected file and try again see if it happens again, it could simple be a bit of corruption during the upload that caused the error, on the other hand you could have been hit

I'd rather live as we do now because there wouldnt be any point otherwise.. everything we do, essentially, is to help us in the future or to enhance the future in some way, the best example being to work so we have money on pay day so without that there wouldnt be anything to do... Sure you could explore but without knowing where you are you wouldnt know where to go, you could wake up in the middle of a HUGE city and not get out before you went to sleep again so it would all be in vain.And sadly people do live like this, if they have lost the ability to remember new things then everytime they wake they are essentially in a brand new, unseen place unless of course their memories run up to the point they arrived in the place they now live, but if they lost 5 years of memories and moved house 3 years ago then every day they wake up in a new house with new people around etc... i cant imagine how horrible that must be.

Judging by what you've done and said you've probably hit the trojan well and got rid of it which is good news, and the firewall will really help in the future at both stopping you from getting them and minimizing the damage done. And thats the problem, a lot of people assume that a firewall will protect them well enough but as this demonstrates you really do need an AV because a firewall wont and cant stop everything. Glad to hear its solved though

Ah this has to be said... A trojan isnt a virus because a virus is essentially a stand a lone piece of code that NEEDS to infect another program to run, so if you took a virus and put it on a blank disk and ran that disk with no other programs, not even an operating system, then technically it shouldnt be able to run. So technically a Trojan is Malware not a virus But for all intensive purposes thinking of it as a virus doesnt matter!

Im glad to see you've solved it, one thing to remember is that at T17 POST and GET variables arent assigned to their variable name eg: On my localhost i have a HTML page that creates the $username variable using the POST method of a form and links to the below code in PHP and it works fine: echo "hello $username"; But on T17 the $username variable would be blank here because i need to use the POST array to get it out: $username = $_POST['username'];echo "hello $username"; This would work. I had major headaches because of this fact and then realiser it was a security concern to have it get them automatically from the POST and GET arrays. The setting is in the PHP.ini file in your localhost folders somewhere so you can change it yourself but i dont know the name so maybe someone else can help. Im not sure if this affects your scripts because i couldn't tell which variables were passed from POST and which weren't but its a thing to remember if you have this problem or if anyone else does.

Well the trojan horse malware is named after the historical invasion of troy i believe. If you remember the opposing army gave the city of Troy a HUGE wooden horse, like the size of a house and they took it inside their gates and over night the horse opened up and enemy soldiers spilled out opening the gates allowing their friends to come in and destroy the city. The most genius siege ever. A trojan horse software works in the same way. It is usually in a program that looks useful (like the horse in the siege) and in this case it was the AVI player you downloaded, it looks useful but inside there was a threat and as soon as it's on your computer it begins to spill out its bad code onto your system. From here it can do anything, install a virus of other malware, install keyloggers, download files, upload files, destroy your hard drive etc... effectively destroy your computer (same as destroying the city in the siege) and thats what they are and why they are called Trojan horses.As for removing them i think you did the right thing. You should treat them as any other malware, head your AV warning and quarantine them (dont delete them outright at first in case they have infected system files and crash your machine) then delete or quarantine any files its likely they might have infected. IF possible check for the name of the trojan and then find out what it does. EG if it is a trojan that downloads other malware a good step is to tighten your firewall or disconnect from the net untill you remove it. Once you feel it is safe again do a full system scan or even better, a boot-time scan if your AV lets you and you should be safe again. to avoid them in the future always download from reputable sites, eg download.com etc... so you know they arent deliberately infected and you should scan files on download.. i dont always but i know i should, its only a matter of time.

Well said I think as SM said microsoft are incapable of multitasking, they do one thing OR the other, not both. There is no real reason why MS cant make IE compliant with standards... im sure i can think of several reasons why they cant but they would be more like insults than reasons...they have hundreds, maybe thousands of experienced good level coders so they have no excuses. I'd like to see a compliant IE and a compliant FF because if Opera can do it then so can everyone else, i man FF is getting there compared with the horrible IE7 and 6 display which is red for some unknown reason Even though i detest IE7 as it is the bane of my existence i really hope, yet doubt, that they can get their act together and make a compliant, or near compliant, browser this time around. It would restore faith in IE and make web developing a whole lot easier. for those who dont know it the URL to the test is http://www.webstandards.org/action/acid2/ try it in internet explorer and see the horrible redness of it all then click the link to see the image of how it should look....Ugly eh? they've even managed to conjure scrollbars out of the nothingness... well done MS

Im not sure how much you've done to your site in terms of SEO but even the best optimization can only get you so far, first you have to register with google and other search engines, here is my guide on signing up with google: http://forums.xisto.com/index.php?shoc=49186= If you havent done that yet then do it first as without registering with google you are VERY limited to how viewable you are in google results! After that I dont know what to suggest, im not much of an SEO guru so thats most of what i know in that guide there, i know basic optimization but not much so i'll let someone else take over from here!

Yup, that's how I'd do it... although im the neatest of coders it tends to work! One thing to remember is to clear all user input of suspicious characters like quotes etc... I made a login system that worked in a similar way to this as it goes, i used the user-entered username and password to query the DB and look for their ID etc.. and double check it that way, worked well. If you do turn this into a full login (or other useful) system then you should write it out as a tutorial so others can learn and you'll also get plenty of credits I'm glad you solved the problem and made something useful out of it

Exactly right, when you do anything between php and MYSQL you need to first connect to the database, as on that Tizag website at the start of the tutorial this is how to connect to a DB: The first line there starts by declaring the $link variable, you can call this variable whatever you want, then the value of that variable is not a string of characters its a connection and you make that connection with the MYSQL_CONNECT statement, note the parameters inside the brackets there, the first is the server name, now usually that is simply "localhost" unless your host tells you otherwise always use "localhost" there, the next one is username, your host will always tell you this, here at T17 i think it's the same as your hosting login name, which isnt the same as your forum username, the username im talking about is the one you use to login to CPANEL with, i could be wrong here, its been a long time since i setup my databases! For local use, for example if you have XAMPP or another local testing system with PHP and MYSQL your username will usually be "root" unless your installation tells you differently. And the last parameter is the password, again your host usually tells you this and with T17 i think its the password you use to login to CPANEL with and on a local installation you either set it up or it can be blank sometimes but check with the documentation of your installation if you have one. Now if Im wrong about the T17 login stuff then this should be the right way to get a username and password... you login to CPANEL and go to the databases or MYSQL section, i cant remember what its called but its NOT PHPMyAdmin thats for managing the databases. So once into the MYSQL DATABASES section (or whatever its called) you will see any and all databases you have made, if you have'nt made one yet then you need to make one here now but from what you said you have made one ( i realise this info is specific to T17 so if you're not with T17 you may as well skip this) So here you find the DB you want, or make one, and then you can assign users to it, if i remember rightly they are in a drop down list, just select the user you want, if you dont see any users or you want to make a new one i think there is a button or link to make a new user, give it all privileges (note this can be insecure so do a google on MYSQL privileges if you want to make sure) And give this user a username and password and assign it to the DB, the username and password you made here will be used in the above line. (END of T17 specific info so pickup from here if you skipped the above) The second line in the code selects the DB to connect to, so far you have connected to the SERVER but not to any DATABASES on that server, It's fairly simple, just replace the "DB NAME" with the database name, this is NOT the TABLE name, for example if you're using PHPMyAdmin (AKA "PMA") then on the left is where you have a drop down list to select the database you want to see, EG you might have a DB called "LOGIN" with tables "Users" "admins" etc..... under it so the name you want is "LOGIN" as that is the DB name. As you might know the or die(mysql_error());code at the end simply means that if there is an error it will give a nice error message rather than being silent and just not working. does that make sense? Basically you just need to copy and paste this code ABOVE the rest of the database related code (most of us stick it right at the top of the page or just save those two lines into a separate file and use PHP INCLUDE to get the code) and change the bits I've talked about and it should work **EDIT I took a long time writing this and thats why I still posted it, i wouldnt have if i had seen the problem was now solved. Its up to the mods whether or not this stays here, i think it could be beneficial to other users but their decision is final as always I can quote the whole thing if required.