I've been trying to figure this out for months so if someone could tell me how stupid I am that would be great...

The first php.ini file works for sharing sessions from domain to subdomain no prob... with the simple inclusion of

session.cookie_domain = "mydomain.com"

I've tried them both with and without the dot in fromnt and the first one works only without it...

The problem is that it throughs all sorts of errors - I just shut them off and I have no trouble but it makes it difficult to trouble shoot errors

the second one - which is the actual file my host is using - doesn't work at all as far as sharing sessions between domain and subdomain - I think I have put all of the settings the same - and I have tried numerous different things but it just will not work - for the life of me I can't figure out why one does and the other doesn't so if someone else can that'd be great

here is the first one that works as far as sharing sessions between domains and subdomains

engine = On
zend.ze1_compatibility_mode = Off
short_open_tag = On
asp_tags = Off
precision    =  12
y2k_compliance = Off
output_buffering = On
zlib.output_compression = On
implicit_flush = Off
unserialize_callback_func=
serialize_precision = 100
allow_call_time_pass_reference = On
safe_mode = Off
safe_mode_gid = 
safe_mode_include_dir = 
safe_mode_exec_dir =
safe_mode_allowed_env_vars = PHP_
safe_mode_protected_env_vars = LD_LIBRARY_PATH
disable_functions =
disable_classes =
expose_php = Off
max_execution_time = 300
max_input_time = 300    
memory_limit = 300M      
error_reporting  =  E_ALL
display_errors = Off
display_startup_errors = Off
include_path = ".:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php"

log_errors = On
log_errors_max_len = 9024
ignore_repeated_errors = Off
ignore_repeated_source = Off
report_memleaks = On
track_errors = Off

variables_order = "EGPCS"
register_globals = Off
register_long_arrays = Off
register_argc_argv = Off
auto_globals_jit = On
post_max_size = 300M
magic_quotes_gpc = Off
magic_quotes_runtime = Off
magic_quotes_sybase = Off
auto_prepend_file =
auto_append_file =
default_mimetype = "text/html"
;default_charset = "iso-8859-1"

doc_root =
user_dir =
extension_dir = "./"
enable_dl = On
file_uploads = On
upload_tmp_dir = "/home/domain/tmp"
upload_max_filesize = 300M
allow_url_fopen = On
default_socket_timeout = 300



[Syslog]
define_syslog_variables  = Off

[mail function]
smtp_port = 25


[SQL]
sql.safe_mode = Off

[ODBC]
odbc.allow_persistent = On
odbc.check_persistent = On
odbc.max_persistent = -1
odbc.max_links = -1
odbc.defaultlrl = 4096
odbc.defaultbinmode = 1

[MySQL]
mysql.allow_persistent = On
mysql.max_persistent = -1
mysql.max_links = -1
mysql.default_port =
mysql.default_socket =
mysql.default_host =
mysql.default_user =
mysql.default_password =
mysql.connect_timeout = 60
mysql.trace_mode = Off

[MySQLi]
mysqli.max_links = -1
mysqli.default_port = 3306
mysqli.default_socket =
mysqli.default_host =
mysqli.default_user =
mysqli.default_pw =
mysqli.reconnect = Off

[mSQL]
msql.allow_persistent = On
msql.max_persistent = -1
msql.max_links = -1

[PostgresSQL]
pgsql.allow_persistent = On
pgsql.auto_reset_persistent = Off
pgsql.max_persistent = -1
pgsql.max_links = -1
pgsql.ignore_notice = 0
pgsql.log_notice = 0

[Sybase]
sybase.allow_persistent = On
sybase.max_persistent = -1
sybase.max_links = -1
sybase.min_error_severity = 10
sybase.min_message_severity = 10
sybase.compatability_mode = Off

[Sybase-CT]
sybct.allow_persistent = On
sybct.max_persistent = -1
sybct.max_links = -1
sybct.min_server_severity = 10
sybct.min_client_severity = 10

[bcmath]
bcmath.scale = 0

[browscap]

[Informix]
ifx.default_host =
ifx.default_user =
ifx.default_password =
ifx.allow_persistent = On
ifx.max_persistent = -1
ifx.max_links = -1
ifx.textasvarchar = 0
ifx.byteasvarchar = 0
ifx.charasvarchar = 0
ifx.blobinfile = 0
ifx.nullformat = 0

[Session]
session.save_handler = files
session.save_path = "/home/domain/ses"
session.use_cookies = 1
session.name = PHPSESSID
session.auto_start = 0
session.cookie_lifetime = 0
session.cookie_path = /
session.cookie_domain = "domain.com"
session.serialize_handler = php
session.gc_probability = 1
session.gc_divisor     = 100
session.gc_maxlifetime = 1440
session.bug_compat_42 = 1
session.bug_compat_warn = 1
session.referer_check =
session.entropy_length = 0
session.entropy_file =
session.cache_limiter = nocache
session.cache_expire = 180
session.use_trans_sid = 0
session.hash_function = 0
session.hash_bits_per_character = 4

url_rewriter.tags = "a=href,area=href,frame=src,input=src,form=,fieldset="

[MSSQL]
mssql.allow_persistent = On
mssql.max_persistent = -1
mssql.max_links = -1
mssql.min_error_severity = 10
mssql.min_message_severity = 10
mssql.compatability_mode = Off
mssql.secure_connection = Off

[Assertion]

[Verisign Payflow Pro]
pfpro.defaulthost = "test-payflow.verisign.com"
pfpro.defaultport = 443
pfpro.defaulttimeout = 30

[COM]

[mbstring]

[FrontBase]

[exif]

[Zend]
zend_optimizer.optimization_level=15
zend_extension_manager.optimizer=/usr/local/Zend/lib/Optimizer-3.3.0
zend_extension_manager.optimizer_ts=/usr/local/Zend/lib/Optimizer_TS-3.3.0
zend_optimizer.version=3.3.0




zend_extension=/usr/local/Zend/lib/ZendExtensionManager.so
zend_extension_ts=/usr/local/Zend/lib/ZendExtensionManager_TS.so


[Tidy]
tidy.clean_output = Off

[soap]
soap.wsdl_cache_enabled=1
soap.wsdl_cache_dir="$$PHPSESSIONS_FOLDER$$"
soap.wsdl_cache_ttl=86400

this is the one that I would like to use since it is the actual one my host is using and the error reporting works fine.

;;;;;;;;;;;
; WARNING ;
;;;;;;;;;;;
; This is the default settings file for new PHP installations.
; By default, PHP installs itself with a configuration suitable for
; development purposes, and *NOT* for production purposes.
; For several security-oriented considerations that should be taken
; before going online with your site, please consult php.ini-recommended
; and http://php.net/manual/en/security.php.


;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; About this file ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; This file controls many aspects of PHP's behavior.  In order for PHP to
; read it, it must be named 'php.ini'.  PHP looks for it in the current
; working directory, in the path designated by the environment variable
; PHPRC, and in the path that was defined in compile time (in that order).
; Under Windows, the compile-time path is the Windows directory.  The
; path in which the php.ini file is looked for can be overridden using
; the -c argument in command line mode.
;
; The syntax of the file is extremely simple.  Whitespace and Lines
; beginning with a semicolon are silently ignored (as you probably guessed).
; Section headers (e.g. [Foo]) are also silently ignored, even though
; they might mean something in the future.
;
; Directives are specified using the following syntax:
; directive = value
; Directive names are *case sensitive* - foo=bar is different from FOO=bar.
;
; The value can be a string, a number, a PHP constant (e.g. E_ALL or M_PI), one
; of the INI constants (On, Off, True, False, Yes, No and None) or an expression
; (e.g. E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE), or a quoted string ("foo").
;
; Expressions in the INI file are limited to bitwise operators and parentheses:
; |        bitwise OR
; &        bitwise AND
; ~        bitwise NOT
; !        boolean NOT
;
; Boolean flags can be turned on using the values 1, On, True or Yes.
; They can be turned off using the values 0, Off, False or No.
;
; An empty string can be denoted by simply not writing anything after the equal
; sign, or by using the None keyword:
;
;  foo =         ; sets foo to an empty string
;  foo = none    ; sets foo to an empty string
;  foo = "none"  ; sets foo to the string 'none'
;
; If you use constants in your value, and these constants belong to a
; dynamically loaded extension (either a PHP extension or a Zend extension),
; you may only use these constants *after* the line that loads the extension.
;
; All the values in the php.ini-dist file correspond to the builtin
; defaults (that is, if no php.ini is used, or if you delete these lines,
; the builtin defaults will be identical).


;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Language Options ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

; Enable the PHP scripting language engine under Apache.
engine = On

; Allow the <? tag.  Otherwise, only <?php and <script> tags are recognized.  
; NOTE: Using short tags should be avoided when developing applications or
; libraries that are meant for redistribution, or deployment on PHP
; servers which are not under your control, because short tags may not
; be supported on the target server. For portable, redistributable code,
; be sure not to use short tags.
short_open_tag = On

; Allow ASP-style <% %> tags.
asp_tags = Off

; The number of significant digits displayed in floating point numbers.
precision    =  12

; Enforce year 2000 compliance (will cause problems with non-compliant browsers)
y2k_compliance = On

; Output buffering allows you to send header lines (including cookies) even
; after you send body content, at the price of slowing PHP's output layer a
; bit.  You can enable output buffering during runtime by calling the output
; buffering functions.  You can also enable output buffering for all files by
; setting this directive to On.  If you wish to limit the size of the buffer
; to a certain size - you can use a maximum number of bytes instead of 'On', as
; a value for this directive (e.g., output_buffering=4096).
output_buffering = On

; You can redirect all of the output of your scripts to a function.  For
; example, if you set output_handler to "mb_output_handler", character
; encoding will be transparently converted to the specified encoding.
; Setting any output handler automatically turns on output buffering.
; Note: People who wrote portable scripts should not depend on this ini
;       directive. Instead, explicitly set the output handler using ob_start().
;       Using this ini directive may cause problems unless you know what script 
;       is doing.
; Note: You cannot use both "mb_output_handler" with "ob_iconv_handler"
;       and you cannot use both "ob_gzhandler" and "zlib.output_compression". 
;output_handler =

; Transparent output compression using the zlib library
; Valid values for this option are 'off', 'on', or a specific buffer size
; to be used for compression (default is 4KB)
; Note: Resulting chunk size may vary due to nature of compression. PHP 
;       outputs chunks that are few hundreds bytes each as a result of 
;       compression. If you prefer a larger chunk size for better 
;       performance, enable output_buffering in addition.
; Note: You need to use zlib.output_handler instead of the standard
;       output_handler, or otherwise the output will be corrupted.
zlib.output_compression = Off

; You cannot specify additional output handlers if zlib.output_compression
; is activated here. This setting does the same as output_handler but in
; a different order.
;zlib.output_handler =

; Implicit flush tells PHP to tell the output layer to flush itself
; automatically after every output block.  This is equivalent to calling the
; PHP function flush() after each and every call to print() or echo() and each
; and every HTML block.  Turning this option on has serious performance
; implications and is generally recommended for debugging purposes only.
implicit_flush = Off

; The unserialize callback function will be called (with the undefined class'
; name as parameter), if the unserializer finds an undefined class
; which should be instanciated.
; A warning appears if the specified function is not defined, or if the
; function doesn't include/implement the missing class.
; So only set this entry, if you really want to implement such a 
; callback-function.
unserialize_callback_func=

; When floats & doubles are serialized store serialize_precision significant
; digits after the floating point. The default value ensures that when floats
; are decoded with unserialize, the data will remain the same.
serialize_precision = 100

; Whether to enable the ability to force arguments to be passed by reference
; at function call time.  This method is deprecated and is likely to be
; unsupported in future versions of PHP/Zend.  The encouraged method of
; specifying which arguments should be passed by reference is in the function
; declaration.  You're encouraged to try and turn this option Off and make
; sure your scripts work properly with it in order to ensure they will work
; with future versions of the language (you will receive a warning each time
; you use this feature, and the argument will be passed by value instead of by
; reference).
allow_call_time_pass_reference = On

; Safe Mode
;
safe_mode = Off

; By default, Safe Mode does a UID compare check when
; opening files. If you want to relax this to a GID compare,
; then turn on safe_mode_gid.
safe_mode_gid = Off

; When safe_mode is on, UID/GID checks are bypassed when
; including files from this directory and its subdirectories.
; (directory must also be in include_path or full path must
; be used when including)
safe_mode_include_dir =                             

; When safe_mode is on, only executables located in the safe_mode_exec_dir
; will be allowed to be executed via the exec family of functions.
safe_mode_exec_dir =

; Setting certain environment variables may be a potential security breach.
; This directive contains a comma-delimited list of prefixes.  In Safe Mode,
; the user may only alter environment variables whose names begin with the
; prefixes supplied here.  By default, users will only be able to set
; environment variables that begin with PHP_ (e.g. PHP_FOO=BAR).
;
; Note:  If this directive is empty, PHP will let the user modify ANY
; environment variable!
safe_mode_allowed_env_vars = PHP_

; This directive contains a comma-delimited list of environment variables that
; the end user won't be able to change using putenv().  These variables will be
; protected even if safe_mode_allowed_env_vars is set to allow to change them.
safe_mode_protected_env_vars = LD_LIBRARY_PATH

; open_basedir, if set, limits all file operations to the defined directory
; and below.  This directive makes most sense if used in a per-directory
; or per-virtualhost web server configuration file. This directive is
; *NOT* affected by whether Safe Mode is turned On or Off.
;open_basedir =

; This directive allows you to disable certain functions for security reasons.
; It receives a comma-delimited list of function names. This directive is
; *NOT* affected by whether Safe Mode is turned On or Off.
disable_functions = system,shell_exec,telnet,friends

; This directive allows you to disable certain classes for security reasons.
; It receives a comma-delimited list of class names. This directive is
; *NOT* affected by whether Safe Mode is turned On or Off.
disable_classes =

; Colors for Syntax Highlighting mode.  Anything that's acceptable in
; <font color="??????"> would work.
;highlight.string  = #DD0000
;highlight.comment = #FF9900
;highlight.keyword = #007700
;highlight.bg      = #FFFFFF
;highlight.default = #0000BB
;highlight.html    = #000000


;
; Misc
;
; Decides whether PHP may expose the fact that it is installed on the server
; (e.g. by adding its signature to the Web server header).  It is no security
; threat in any way, but it makes it possible to determine whether you use PHP
; on your server or not.
expose_php = On


;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Resource Limits ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

max_execution_time = 30     ; Maximum execution time of each script, in seconds
max_input_time = 60 ; Maximum amount of time each script may spend parsing request data
memory_limit = 32M      ; Maximum amount of memory a script may consume (8MB)

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Error handling and logging ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

; error_reporting is a bit-field.  Or each number up to get desired error
; reporting level
; E_ALL             - All errors and warnings
; E_ERROR           - fatal run-time errors
; E_WARNING         - run-time warnings (non-fatal errors)
; E_PARSE           - compile-time parse errors
; E_NOTICE          - run-time notices (these are warnings which often result
;                     from a bug in your code, but it's possible that it was
;                     intentional (e.g., using an uninitialized variable and
;                     relying on the fact it's automatically initialized to an
;                     empty string)
; E_CORE_ERROR      - fatal errors that occur during PHP's initial startup
; E_CORE_WARNING    - warnings (non-fatal errors) that occur during PHP's
;                     initial startup
; E_COMPILE_ERROR   - fatal compile-time errors
; E_COMPILE_WARNING - compile-time warnings (non-fatal errors)
; E_USER_ERROR      - user-generated error message
; E_USER_WARNING    - user-generated warning message
; E_USER_NOTICE     - user-generated notice message
;
; Examples:
;
;   - Show all errors, except for notices
;
;error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE
;
;   - Show only errors
;
;error_reporting = E_COMPILE_ERROR|E_ERROR|E_CORE_ERROR
;
;   - Show all errors except for notices
;
error_reporting  =  E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE

; Print out errors (as a part of the output).  For production web sites,
; you're strongly encouraged to turn this feature off, and use error logging
; instead (see below).  Keeping display_errors enabled on a production web site
; may reveal security information to end users, such as file paths on your Web
; server, your database schema or other information.
display_errors = On

; Even when display_errors is on, errors that occur during PHP's startup
; sequence are not displayed.  It's strongly recommended to keep
; display_startup_errors off, except for when debugging.
display_startup_errors = Off

; Log errors into a log file (server-specific log, stderr, or error_log (below))
; As stated above, you're strongly advised to use error logging in place of
; error displaying on production web sites.
log_errors = On

; Set maximum length of log_errors. In error_log information about the source is
; added. The default is 1024 and 0 allows to not apply any maximum length at all.
;log_errors = On;

; Do not log repeated messages. Repeated errors must occur in same file on same
; line until ignore_repeated_source is set true.
ignore_repeated_errors = Off

; Ignore source of message when ignoring repeated messages. When this setting 
; is On you will not log errors with repeated messages from different files or
; sourcelines.
ignore_repeated_source = Off

; If this parameter is set to Off, then memory leaks will not be shown (on
; stdout or in the log). This has only effect in a debug compile, and if 
; error reporting includes E_WARNING in the allowed list
report_memleaks = On

; Store the last error/warning message in $php_errormsg (boolean).
track_errors = Off

; Disable the inclusion of HTML tags in error messages.
;html_errors = Off

; If html_errors is set On PHP produces clickable error messages that direct 
; to a page describing the error or function causing the error in detail.
; You can download a copy of the PHP manual from http://www.php.net/docs.php 
; and change docref_root to the base URL of your local copy including the
; leading '/'. You must also specify the file extension being used including 
; the dot.
;docref_root = "/phpmanual/"
;docref_ext = .html

; String to output before an error message.
;error_prepend_string = "<font color=ff0000>"

; String to output after an error message.
;error_append_string = "</font>"

; Log errors to specified file.
error_log = error_log

; Log errors to syslog (Event Log on NT, not valid in Windows 95).
;error_log = error_log;


;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Data Handling ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;
; Note - track_vars is ALWAYS enabled as of PHP 4.0.3

; The separator used in PHP generated URLs to separate arguments.
; Default is "&". 
;arg_separator.output = "&amp;"

; List of separator(s) used by PHP to parse input URLs into variables.
; Default is "&". 
; NOTE: Every character in this directive is considered as separator!
;arg_separator.input = ";&"

; This directive describes the order in which PHP registers GET, POST, Cookie,
; Environment and Built-in variables (G, P, C, E & S respectively, often
; referred to as EGPCS or GPC).  Registration is done from left to right, newer
; values override older values.
variables_order = "EGPCS"

; Whether or not to register the EGPCS variables as global variables.  You may
; want to turn this off if you don't want to clutter your scripts' global scope
; with user data.  This makes most sense when coupled with track_vars - in which
; case you can access all of the GPC variables through the $HTTP_*_VARS[],
; variables.
;
; You should do your best to write your scripts so that they do not require
; register_globals = Off;  to be on;  Using form variables as globals can easily lead
; to possible security problems, if the code is not very well thought of.
register_globals = Off;  = Off

; This directive tells PHP whether to declare the argv&argc variables (that
; would contain the GET information).  If you don't use these variables, you
; should turn it off for increased performance.
register_argc_argv = On

; Maximum size of POST data that PHP will accept.
post_max_size = 8M

; This directive is deprecated.  Use variables_order instead.
gpc_order = "GPC"

; Magic quotes
;

; Magic quotes for incoming GET/POST/Cookie data.
magic_quotes_gpc = Off;      = On

; Magic quotes for runtime-generated data, e.g. data from SQL, from exec(), etc.
magic_quotes_runtime = Off    

; Use Sybase-style magic quotes (escape ' with '' instead of \').
magic_quotes_sybase = Off

; Automatically add files before or after any PHP document.
auto_prepend_file =
auto_append_file =

; As of 4.0b4, PHP always outputs a character encoding by default in
; the Content-type: header.  To disable sending of the charset, simply
; set it to be empty.
;
; PHP's built-in default is text/html
default_mimetype = "text/html"
;default_charset = "iso-8859-1"

; Always populate the $HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA variable.
;always_populate_raw_post_data = On


;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Paths and Directories ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

; UNIX: "/path1:/path2"  
include_path = ".:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php"
;
; Windows: "\path1;\path2"
;include_path = ".:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php"   ;

; The root of the PHP pages, used only if nonempty.
; if PHP was not compiled with FORCE_REDIRECT, you SHOULD set doc_root
; if you are running php as a CGI under any web server (other than IIS)
; see documentation for security issues.  The alternate is to use the
; cgi.force_redirect configuration below
doc_root =

; The directory under which PHP opens the script using /~username used only
; if nonempty.
user_dir =

; Directory in which the loadable extensions (modules) reside.
extension_dir = "/usr/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20060613"
zend_extension="/usr/local/IonCube/ioncube_loader_lin_5.2.so"
zend_extension_ts="/usr/local/IonCube/ioncube_loader_lin_5.2_ts.so"
extension="suhosin.so"

; Whether or not to enable the dl() function.  The dl() function does NOT work
; properly in multithreaded servers, such as IIS or Zeus, and is automatically
; disabled on them.
enable_dl = Off

; cgi.force_redirect is necessary to provide security running PHP as a CGI under
; most web servers.  Left undefined, PHP turns this on by default.  You can
; turn it off here AT YOUR OWN RISK
; **You CAN safely turn this off for IIS, in fact, you MUST.**
; cgi.force_redirect = 1

; if cgi.nph is enabled it will force cgi to always sent Status: 200 with
; every request.
; cgi.nph = 1

; if cgi.force_redirect is turned on, and you are not running under Apache or Netscape 
; (iPlanet) web servers, you MAY need to set an environment variable name that PHP
; will look for to know it is OK to continue execution.  Setting this variable MAY
; cause security issues, KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING FIRST.
; cgi.redirect_status_env = ;

; cgi.fix_pathinfo provides *real* PATH_INFO/PATH_TRANSLATED support for CGI.  PHP's
; previous behaviour was to set PATH_TRANSLATED to SCRIPT_FILENAME, and to not grok
; what PATH_INFO is.  For more information on PATH_INFO, see the cgi specs.  Setting
; this to 1 will cause PHP CGI to fix it's paths to conform to the spec.  A setting
; of zero causes PHP to behave as before.  Default is zero.  You should fix your scripts
; to use SCRIPT_FILENAME rather than PATH_TRANSLATED.
; cgi.fix_pathinfo=0

; FastCGI under IIS (on WINNT based OS) supports the ability to impersonate
; security tokens of the calling client.  This allows IIS to define the
; security context that the request runs under.  mod_fastcgi under Apache
; does not currently support this feature (03/17/2002)
; Set to 1 if running under IIS.  Default is zero.
; fastcgi.impersonate = 1;

; cgi.rfc2616_headers configuration option tells PHP what type of headers to
; use when sending HTTP response code. If it's set 0 PHP sends Status: header that
; is supported by Apache. When this option is set to 1 PHP will send
; RFC2616 compliant header.
; Default is zero.
;cgi.rfc2616_headers = 0 


;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; File Uploads ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

; Whether to allow HTTP file uploads.
file_uploads = On

; Temporary directory for HTTP uploaded files (will use system default if not
; specified).
;upload_tmp_dir =

; Maximum allowed size for uploaded files.
upload_max_filesize = 2M


;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Fopen wrappers ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

; Whether to allow the treatment of URLs (like http:// or ftp://) as files.
allow_url_fopen = On

; Define the anonymous ftp password (your email address)
;from="john@doe.com"

; Define the User-Agent string
; user_agent="PHP"

; Default timeout for socket based streams (seconds)
default_socket_timeout = 60

; If your scripts have to deal with files from Macintosh systems,
; or you are running on a Mac and need to deal with files from
; unix or win32 systems, setting this flag will cause PHP to
; automatically detect the EOL character in those files so that
; fgets() and file() will work regardless of the source of the file.
; auto_detect_line_endings = Off


;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Dynamic Extensions ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;
; If you wish to have an extension loaded automatically, use the following
; syntax:
;
;   extension=modulename.extension
;
; For example, on Windows:
;
;   extension=msql.dll
;
; ... or under UNIX:
;
;   extension=msql.so
;
; Note that it should be the name of the module only; no directory information 
; needs to go here.  Specify the location of the extension with the
; extension_dir directive above.


;Windows Extensions
;Note that MySQL and ODBC support is now built in, so no dll is needed for it.
;
;extension=php_bz2.dll
;extension=php_cpdf.dll
;extension=php_crack.dll
;extension=php_curl.dll
;extension=php_db.dll
;extension=php_dba.dll
;extension=php_dbase.dll
;extension=php_dbx.dll
;extension=php_domxml.dll
;extension=php_exif.dll
;extension=php_fdf.dll
;extension=php_filepro.dll
;extension=php_gd2.dll
;extension=php_gettext.dll
;extension=php_hyperwave.dll
;extension=php_iconv.dll
;extension=php_ifx.dll
;extension=php_iisfunc.dll
;extension=php_imap.dll
;extension=php_interbase.dll
;extension=php_java.dll
;extension=php_ldap.dll
;extension=php_mbstring.dll
;extension=php_mcrypt.dll
;extension=php_mhash.dll
;extension=php_mime_magic.dll
;extension=php_ming.dll
;extension=php_mssql.dll
;extension=php_msql.dll
;extension=php_oci8.dll
;extension=php_openssl.dll
;extension=php_oracle.dll
;extension=php_pdf.dll
;extension=php_pgsql.dll
;extension=php_printer.dll
;extension=php_shmop.dll
;extension=php_snmp.dll
;extension=php_sockets.dll
;extension=php_sybase_ct.dll
;extension=php_w32api.dll
;extension=php_xmlrpc.dll
;extension=php_xslt.dll
;extension=php_yaz.dll
;extension=php_zip.dll


;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Module Settings ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

[Syslog]
; Whether or not to define the various syslog variables (e.g. $LOG_PID,
; $LOG_CRON, etc.).  Turning it off is a good idea performance-wise.  In
; runtime, you can define these variables by calling define_syslog_variables().
define_syslog_variables  = Off

[mail function]
; For Win32 only.
;SMTP = localhost
smtp_port = 25

; For Win32 only.
;sendmail_from = me@localhost.com

; For Unix only.  You may supply arguments as well (default: "sendmail -t -i").
sendmail_path = "/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i"

[Java]
;java.class.path = .\php_java.jar
;java.home = c:\jdk
;java.library = c:\jdk\jre\bin\hotspot\jvm.dll 
;java.library.path = .\

[SQL]
sql.safe_mode = Off

[ODBC]
;odbc.default_db    =  Not yet implemented
;odbc.default_user  =  Not yet implemented
;odbc.default_pw    =  Not yet implemented

; Allow or prevent persistent links.
odbc.allow_persistent = On

; Check that a connection is still valid before reuse.
odbc.check_persistent = On

; Maximum number of persistent links.  -1 means no limit.
odbc.max_persistent = -1

; Maximum number of links (persistent + non-persistent).  -1 means no limit.
odbc.max_links = -1  

; Handling of LONG fields.  Returns number of bytes to variables.  0 means
; passthru.
odbc.defaultlrl = 4096  

; Handling of binary data.  0 means passthru, 1 return as is, 2 convert to char.
; See the documentation on odbc_binmode and odbc_longreadlen for an explanation
; of uodbc.defaultlrl and uodbc.defaultbinmode
odbc.defaultbinmode = 1  

[MySQL]
; Allow or prevent persistent links.
mysql.allow_persistent = On

; Maximum number of persistent links.  -1 means no limit.
mysql.max_persistent = -1

; Maximum number of links (persistent + non-persistent).  -1 means no limit.
mysql.max_links = -1

; Default port number for mysql_connect().  If unset, mysql_connect() will use
; the $MYSQL_TCP_PORT or the mysql-tcp entry in /etc/services or the
; compile-time value defined MYSQL_PORT (in that order).  Win32 will only look
; at MYSQL_PORT.
mysql.default_port =

; Default socket name for local MySQL connects.  If empty, uses the built-in
; MySQL defaults.
mysql.default_socket =

; Default host for mysql_connect() (doesn't apply in safe mode).
mysql.default_host =

; Default user for mysql_connect() (doesn't apply in safe mode).
mysql.default_user =

; Default password for mysql_connect() (doesn't apply in safe mode).
; Note that this is generally a *bad* idea to store passwords in this file.
; *Any* user with PHP access can run 'echo get_cfg_var("mysql.default_password")
; and reveal this password!  And of course, any users with read access to this
; file will be able to reveal the password as well.
mysql.default_password =

; Maximum time (in seconds) for connect timeout. -1 means no limit
mysql.connect_timeout = 60

; Trace mode. When trace_mode is active (=On), warnings for table/index scans and
; SQL-Errors will be displayed.
mysql.trace_mode = Off

[mSQL]
; Allow or prevent persistent links.
msql.allow_persistent = On

; Maximum number of persistent links.  -1 means no limit.
msql.max_persistent = -1

; Maximum number of links (persistent+non persistent).  -1 means no limit.
msql.max_links = -1

[PostgresSQL]
; Allow or prevent persistent links.
pgsql.allow_persistent = On

; Detect broken persistent links always with pg_pconnect(). Need a little overhead.
pgsql.auto_reset_persistent = Off 

; Maximum number of persistent links.  -1 means no limit.
pgsql.max_persistent = -1

; Maximum number of links (persistent+non persistent).  -1 means no limit.
pgsql.max_links = -1

; Ignore PostgreSQL backends Notice message or not.
pgsql.ignore_notice = 0

; Log PostgreSQL backends Noitce message or not.
; Unless pgsql.ignore_notice=0, module cannot log notice message.
pgsql.log_notice = 0

[Sybase]
; Allow or prevent persistent links.
sybase.allow_persistent = On

; Maximum number of persistent links.  -1 means no limit.
sybase.max_persistent = -1

; Maximum number of links (persistent + non-persistent).  -1 means no limit.
sybase.max_links = -1

;sybase.interface_file = "/usr/sybase/interfaces"

; Minimum error severity to display.
sybase.min_error_severity = 10

; Minimum message severity to display.
sybase.min_message_severity = 10

; Compatability mode with old versions of PHP 3.0.
; If on, this will cause PHP to automatically assign types to results according
; to their Sybase type, instead of treating them all as strings.  This
; compatibility mode will probably not stay around forever, so try applying
; whatever necessary changes to your code, and turn it off.
sybase.compatability_mode = Off

[Sybase-CT]
; Allow or prevent persistent links.
sybct.allow_persistent = On

; Maximum number of persistent links.  -1 means no limit.
sybct.max_persistent = -1

; Maximum number of links (persistent + non-persistent).  -1 means no limit.
sybct.max_links = -1

; Minimum server message severity to display.
sybct.min_server_severity = 10

; Minimum client message severity to display.
sybct.min_client_severity = 10

[dbx]
; returned column names can be converted for compatibility reasons
; possible values for dbx.colnames_case are
; "unchanged" (default, if not set)
; "lowercase"
; "uppercase"
; the recommended default is either upper- or lowercase, but
; unchanged is currently set for backwards compatibility
dbx.colnames_case = "unchanged"

[bcmath]
; Number of decimal digits for all bcmath functions.
bcmath.scale = 0

[browscap]
;browscap = extra/browscap.ini

[Informix]
; Default host for ifx_connect() (doesn't apply in safe mode).
ifx.default_host =

; Default user for ifx_connect() (doesn't apply in safe mode).
ifx.default_user =

; Default password for ifx_connect() (doesn't apply in safe mode).
ifx.default_password =

; Allow or prevent persistent links.
ifx.allow_persistent = On

; Maximum number of persistent links.  -1 means no limit.
ifx.max_persistent = -1

; Maximum number of links (persistent + non-persistent).  -1 means no limit.
ifx.max_links = -1

; If on, select statements return the contents of a text blob instead of its id.
ifx.textasvarchar = 0

; If on, select statements return the contents of a byte blob instead of its id.
ifx.byteasvarchar = 0

; Trailing blanks are stripped from fixed-length char columns.  May help the
; life of Informix SE users.
ifx.charasvarchar = 0

; If on, the contents of text and byte blobs are dumped to a file instead of
; keeping them in memory.
ifx.blobinfile = 0

; NULL's are returned as empty strings, unless this is set to 1.  In that case,
; NULL's are returned as string 'NULL'.
ifx.nullformat = 0

[Session]
; Handler used to store/retrieve data.
session.save_handler = files

; Argument passed to save_handler.  In the case of files, this is the path
; where data files are stored. Note: Windows users have to change this 
; variable in order to use PHP's session functions.
; As of PHP 4.0.1, you can define the path as:
;     session.save_path = "N;/path"
; where N is an integer.  Instead of storing all the session files in 
; /path, what this will do is use subdirectories N-levels deep, and 
; store the session data in those directories.  This is useful if you 
; or your OS have problems with lots of files in one directory, and is 
; a more efficient layout for servers that handle lots of sessions.
; NOTE 1: PHP will not create this directory structure automatically.
;         You can use the script in the ext/session dir for that purpose.
; NOTE 2: See the section on garbage collection below if you choose to
;         use subdirectories for session storage
session.save_path = /tmp

; Whether to use cookies.
session.use_cookies = 1

; This option enables administrators to make their users invulnerable to
; attacks which involve passing session ids in URLs; defaults to 0.
; session.use_only_cookies = 1

; Name of the session (used as cookie name).
session.name = PHPSESSID

; Initialize session on request startup.
session.auto_start = 0

; Lifetime in seconds of cookie or, if 0, until browser is restarted.
session.cookie_lifetime = 0

; The path for which the cookie is valid.
session.cookie_path = /

; The domain for which the cookie is valid.
session.cookie_domain = "domain.com"

; Handler used to serialize data.  php is the standard serializer of PHP.
session.serialize_handler = php

; Define the probability that the 'garbage collection' process is started
; on every session initialization.
; The probability is calculated by using gc_probability/gc_divisor,
; e.g. 1/100 means there is a 1% chance that the GC process starts
; on each request.

session.gc_probability = 1
session.gc_divisor     = 100

; After this number of seconds, stored data will be seen as 'garbage' and
; cleaned up by the garbage collection process.
session.gc_maxlifetime = 1440

; NOTE: If you are using the subdirectory option for storing session files
;       (see session.save_path above), then garbage collection does *not*
;       happen automatically.  You will need to do your own garbage 
;       collection through a shell script, cron entry, or some other method. 
;       For example, the following script would is the equivalent of
;       setting session.gc_maxlifetime to 1440 (1440 seconds = 24 minutes):
;          cd /path/to/sessions; find -cmin +24 | xargs rm

; PHP 4.2 and less have an undocumented feature/bug that allows you to
; to initialize a session variable in the global scope, albeit register_globals = Off; 
; is disabled.  PHP 4.3 and later will warn you, if this feature is used.
; You can disable the feature and the warning separately. At this time,
; the warning is only displayed, if bug_compat_42 is enabled.

session.bug_compat_42 = 1
session.bug_compat_warn = 1

; Check HTTP Referer to invalidate externally stored URLs containing ids.
; HTTP_REFERER has to contain this substring for the session to be
; considered as valid.
session.referer_check =

; How many bytes to read from the file.
session.entropy_length = 0

; Specified here to create the session id.
session.entropy_file =

;session.entropy_length = 16

;session.entropy_file = /dev/urandom

; Set to {nocache,private,public,} to determine HTTP caching aspects
; or leave this empty to avoid sending anti-caching headers.
session.cache_limiter = nocache

; Document expires after n minutes.
session.cache_expire = 180

; trans sid support is disabled by default.
; Use of trans sid may risk your users security. 
; Use this option with caution.
; - User may send URL contains active session ID
;   to other person via. email/irc/etc.
; - URL that contains active session ID may be stored
;   in publically accessible computer.
; - User may access your site with the same session ID
;   always using URL stored in browser's history or bookmarks.
session.use_trans_sid = 0

; The URL rewriter will look for URLs in a defined set of HTML tags.
; form/fieldset are special; if you include them here, the rewriter will
; add a hidden <input> field with the info which is otherwise appended
; to URLs.  If you want XHTML conformity, remove the form entry.
; Note that all valid entries require a "=", even if no value follows.
url_rewriter.tags = "a=href,area=href,frame=src,input=src,form=,fieldset="

[MSSQL]
; Allow or prevent persistent links.
mssql.allow_persistent = On

; Maximum number of persistent links.  -1 means no limit.
mssql.max_persistent = -1

; Maximum number of links (persistent+non persistent).  -1 means no limit.
mssql.max_links = -1

; Minimum error severity to display.
mssql.min_error_severity = 10

; Minimum message severity to display.
mssql.min_message_severity = 10

; Compatability mode with old versions of PHP 3.0.
mssql.compatability_mode = Off

; Connect timeout
;mssql.connect_timeout = 5

; Query timeout
;mssql.timeout = 60

; Valid range 0 - 2147483647.  Default = 4096.
;mssql.textlimit = 4096

; Valid range 0 - 2147483647.  Default = 4096.
;mssql.textsize = 4096

; Limits the number of records in each batch.  0 = all records in one batch.
;mssql.batchsize = 0

; Specify how datetime and datetim4 columns are returned
; On => Returns data converted to SQL server settings
; Off => Returns values as YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss
;mssql.datetimeconvert = On

; Use NT authentication when connecting to the server
mssql.secure_connection = Off

; Specify max number of processes. Default = 25
;mssql.max_procs = 25

[Assertion]
; Assert(expr); active by default.
;assert.active = On

; Issue a PHP warning for each failed assertion.
;assert.warning = On

; Don't bail out by default.
;assert.bail = Off

; User-function to be called if an assertion fails.
;assert.callback = 0

; Eval the expression with current error_reporting().  Set to true if you want
; error_reporting(0) around the eval().
;assert.quiet_eval = 0

[Ingres II]
; Allow or prevent persistent links.
ingres.allow_persistent = On

; Maximum number of persistent links.  -1 means no limit.
ingres.max_persistent = -1

; Maximum number of links, including persistents.  -1 means no limit.
ingres.max_links = -1

; Default database (format: [node_id::]dbname[/srv_class]).
ingres.default_database =

; Default user.
ingres.default_user =

; Default password.
ingres.default_password =

[Verisign Payflow Pro]
; Default Payflow Pro server.
pfpro.defaulthost = "test-payflow.verisign.com"

; Default port to connect to.
pfpro.defaultport = 443

; Default timeout in seconds.
pfpro.defaulttimeout = 30

; Default proxy IP address (if required).
;pfpro.proxyaddress =

; Default proxy port.
;pfpro.proxyport =

; Default proxy logon.
;pfpro.proxylogon =

; Default proxy password.
;pfpro.proxypassword =

[com]
; path to a file containing GUIDs, IIDs or filenames of files with TypeLibs
;com.typelib_file = 
; allow Distributed-COM calls
;com.allow_dcom = true
; autoregister constants of a components typlib on com_load()
;com.autoregister_typelib = true
; register constants casesensitive
;com.autoregister_casesensitive = false
; show warnings on duplicate constat registrations
;com.autoregister_verbose = true

[Printer]
;printer.default_printer = ""

[mbstring]
; language for internal character representation.
;mbstring.language = Japanese

; internal/script encoding.
; Some encoding cannot work as internal encoding.
; (e.g. SJIS, BIG5, ISO-2022-*)
;mbstring.internal_encoding = EUC-JP

; http input encoding.
;mbstring.http_input = auto

; http output encoding. mb_output_handler must be
; registered as output buffer to function
;mbstring.http_output = SJIS

; enable automatic encoding translation accoding to 
; mbstring.internal_encoding setting. Input chars are
; converted to internal encoding by setting this to On.
; Note: Do _not_ use automatic encoding translation for
;       portable libs/applications.
;mbstring.encoding_translation = Off

; automatic encoding detection order.
; auto means 
;mbstring.detect_order = auto

; substitute_character used when character cannot be converted
; one from another
;mbstring.substitute_character = none;

; overload(replace) single byte functions by mbstring functions.
; mail(), ereg(), etc are overloaded by mb_send_mail(), mb_ereg(),
; etc. Possible values are 0,1,2,4 or combination of them.
; For example, 7 for overload everything.
; 0: No overload
; 1: Overload mail() function
; 2: Overload str*() functions
; 4: Overload ereg*() functions
;mbstring.func_overload = 0

[FrontBase]
;fbsql.allow_persistent = On
;fbsql.autocommit = On
;fbsql.default_database = 
;fbsql.default_database_password =
;fbsql.default_host =
;fbsql.default_password =
;fbsql.default_user = "_SYSTEM"
;fbsql.generate_warnings = Off
;fbsql.max_connections = 128
;fbsql.max_links = 128
;fbsql.max_persistent = -1
;fbsql.max_results = 128
;fbsql.batchSize = 1000

[Crack]
; Modify the setting below to match the directory location of the cracklib
; dictionary files.  Include the base filename, but not the file extension.
; crack.default_dictionary = "c:\php\lib\cracklib_dict"

[exif]
; Exif UNICODE user comments are handled as UCS-2BE/UCS-2LE and JIS as JIS. 
; With mbstring support this will automatically be converted into the encoding
; given by corresponding encode setting. When empty mbstring.internal_encoding 
; is used. For the decode settings you can distinguish between motorola and 
; intel byte order. A decode setting cannot be empty.
;exif.encode_unicode = ISO-8859-15
;exif.decode_unicode_motorola = UCS-2BE
;exif.decode_unicode_intel    = UCS-2LE
;exif.encode_jis = 
;exif.decode_jis_motorola = JIS
;exif.decode_jis_intel    = JIS

; Local Variables:
; tab-width: 4
; End:


[Zend]
zend_optimizer.optimization_level=15
zend_extension_manager.optimizer=/usr/local/Zend/lib/Optimizer-3.3.0
zend_extension_manager.optimizer_ts=/usr/local/Zend/lib/Optimizer_TS-3.3.0
zend_optimizer.version=3.3.0




zend_extension=/usr/local/Zend/lib/ZendExtensionManager.so
zend_extension_ts=/usr/local/Zend/lib/ZendExtensionManager_TS.so

apache/lynux server

PHP Version: 5.2.5
SQL Version: 5.0.51a-community-log
GD Version: 2 or Better

Thanks

If you probably be easier for you to look at it from the client side.

If you use Firefox, install the Firebug extension, and take a look at the cookies being sent in the HTTP headers.

k.. then what?

k.. then what?

Take a look at the PHP session cookies and find where it is being dropped.

If you post the results here someone may see a correlation.

Take a look at the PHP session cookies and find where it is being dropped.

If you post the results here someone may see a correlation.

Okay I'll try that - see if I can figure out firebug here. . .

Take a look at the PHP session cookies and find where it is being dropped.

If you post the results here someone may see a correlation.

not sure how this will help exactly - the first set are the headers from the php.ini file that keeps you logged in - the first session id is the only one I am concerned with - and it is always there - so I dunno but if this helps someone help me that's great...

Host	domain.com
User-Agent	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1
Accept	text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Accept-Language	en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding	gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset	ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive	300
Connection	keep-alive
Cookie	PHPSESSID=3eda5cdc7c201d2089bda2e5a7b2399d; phpbb3_jnspi_u=53; phpbb3_jnspi_k=; phpbb3_jnspi_sid=d3cc59dc87af2e5b18e97dee9a23a2a3

This is the page I go to and wanna stay logged in and Ido with the first php.ini file and this is with that file

Host	blog.domain.com
User-Agent	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1
Accept	text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Accept-Language	en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding	gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset	ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive	300
Connection	keep-alive
Referer	http://domain.com/members_area.php
Cookie	PHPSESSID=3eda5cdc7c201d2089bda2e5a7b2399d; phpbb3_jnspi_u=53; phpbb3_jnspi_k=; phpbb3_jnspi_sid=d3cc59dc87af2e5b18e97dee9a23a2a3

/

now these two are from the php.ini file that logs me out when I go from one to the next?

this is the first page where you are logged in

Host	domain.com
User-Agent	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1
Accept	text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Accept-Language	en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding	gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset	ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive	300
Connection	keep-alive
Cookie	PHPSESSID=3eda5cdc7c201d2089bda2e5a6c2399d; phpbb3_jnspi_u=53; phpbb3_jnspi_k=; phpbb3_jnspi_sid=365ed13cce41fe62c432c5fee754ea8k

this is the second page where you are not? The look the same to me - so maybe this isn't the info you are asking for?

Host	blog.domain.com
User-Agent	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1
Accept	text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Accept-Language	en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding	gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset	ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive	300
Connection	keep-alive
Referer	http://domain.com/members_area.php
Cookie	PHPSESSID=3eda5cdc7c201d2089bda2e5a6c2399d; phpbb3_jnspi_u=53; phpbb3_jnspi_k=; phpbb3_jnspi_sid=365ed13cce41fe62c432c5fee754ea8k

Could you post the HTTP Response from the server on the page you are logged out?

It looks like those are the HTTP Requests made by the browser.

Could you post the HTTP Response from the server on the page you are logged out?

It looks like those are the HTTP Requests made by the browser.

yeah okay -told you I was a genius - first one works - second one doesn't

Response Headers
Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:39:52 GMT
Server: HTTPD Server
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.5
Expires: Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
Pragma: no-cache
Keep-Alive: timeout=5, max=100
Connection: Keep-Alive
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Response Headers
Date	Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:44:41 GMT
Server	HTTPD Server
Expires	Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Cache-Control	no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
Pragma	no-cache
Content-Encoding	gzip
Vary	Accept-Encoding
Keep-Alive	timeout=5, max=100
Connection	Keep-Alive
Transfer-Encoding	chunked
Content-Type	text/html; charset=UTF-8

yeah okay -told you I was a genius - first one works - second one doesn't

Response Headers
Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:39:52 GMT
Server: HTTPD Server
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.5
Expires: Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
Pragma: no-cache
Keep-Alive: timeout=5, max=100
Connection: Keep-Alive
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Response Headers
Date	Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:44:41 GMT
Server	HTTPD Server
Expires	Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Cache-Control	no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
Pragma	no-cache
Content-Encoding	gzip
Vary	Accept-Encoding
Keep-Alive	timeout=5, max=100
Connection	Keep-Alive
Transfer-Encoding	chunked
Content-Type	text/html; charset=UTF-8

So these are the HTTP Response Headers when the session fails?

Response Headers
Date	Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:44:41 GMT
Server	HTTPD Server
Expires	Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Cache-Control	no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
Pragma	no-cache
Content-Encoding	gzip
Vary	Accept-Encoding
Keep-Alive	timeout=5, max=100
Connection	Keep-Alive
Transfer-Encoding	chunked
Content-Type	text/html; charset=UTF-8

It doesn't show a request set the session cookie, which is what would happen if the session cookie could not be read.
The browser still also shows the correct session cookie (the value hasn't changed). Which would mean the session was still valid.

The only think I can think of would be to post the whole process.
Start with no PHP session on each server.

ie:

start firefox by typing the following into the command prompt.

windows:

start firefox -P --no-remote

Linux:

pkill firefox
firefox -P &

Create a new profile just for the session.

Install Firebug on that profile.

Turn on HTTP monitoring in Firebug for the domains you want to observe.

Copy each HTTP Request and Response headers from the setting of the PHP session on the first domain, and its drop on the second domain. Make sure to include the URL, with parameters (POST will show the parameters separately in Firebug)

I'd expect somewhere along the line, you should see a difference that notes why one domain is dropping the session and the other isn't.

So these are the HTTP Response Headers when the session fails?

Response Headers
Date	Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:44:41 GMT
Server	HTTPD Server
Expires	Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Cache-Control	no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
Pragma	no-cache
Content-Encoding	gzip
Vary	Accept-Encoding
Keep-Alive	timeout=5, max=100
Connection	Keep-Alive
Transfer-Encoding	chunked
Content-Type	text/html; charset=UTF-8

It doesn't show a request set the session cookie, which is what would happen if the session cookie could not be read.
The browser still also shows the correct session cookie (the value hasn't changed). Which would mean the session was still valid.

The only think I can think of would be to post the whole process.
Start with no PHP session on each server.

ie:

start firefox by typing the following into the command prompt.

windows:

start firefox -P --no-remote

Linux:

pkill firefox
firefox -P &

Create a new profile just for the session.

Install Firebug on that profile.

Turn on HTTP monitoring in Firebug for the domains you want to observe.

Copy each HTTP Request and Response headers from the setting of the PHP session on the first domain, and its drop on the second domain. Make sure to include the URL, with parameters (POST will show the parameters separately in Firebug)

I'd expect somewhere along the line, you should see a difference that notes why one domain is dropping the session and the other isn't.

okay I'll try that - thanks

okay I think I did everything you asked - started firefox like you said created a new profile - added firebug turned on the monitor for all the different websites and started at the home page - which incidently is going to give you a session as soo as you get there...

I'd also like to mention that the whole log in system logs you into the main site then redirects to a java login that logs you into the forum and then finally directs you back to the members page ( or where ever you started from) this all works fine with one php.ini file and pretty fine with the other - the only thing is that it logs you put when you go to blog -

However, I would also like to mention that it doesn't log you oout of the forum - only the main site - and really it looks like it is not logging you out - so to speak its just simply not giving you access to the members area - because as you said - the session is still the same and valid... AHHHH??? If I did not do something you asked me to do could you elaborate on that a bit more or shoot me?

Thanks

HOME

Response Headers
Date	Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:48:19 GMT
Server	HTTPD Server
X-Powered-By	PHP/5.2.5
Expires	Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Cache-Control	no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
Pragma	no-cache
Keep-Alive	timeout=5, max=95
Connection	Keep-Alive
Transfer-Encoding	chunked
Content-Type	text/html

Request Headers
Host	louislovers.com
User-Agent	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1
Accept	text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Accept-Language	en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding	gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset	ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive	300
Connection	keep-alive
Cookie	PHPSESSID=87856fd8581931056714c9106587eccf

LOGIN

Response Headers
Date	Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:49:19 GMT
Server	HTTPD Server
Last-Modified	Sun, 06 Apr 2008 15:10:44 GMT
Etag	"e0d6b-2b-44a35c152e500"
Accept-Ranges	bytes
Content-Length	43
Keep-Alive	timeout=5, max=97
Connection	Keep-Alive
Content-Type	image/gif

Request Headers
Host	apophis.sslcatacombnetworking.com
User-Agent	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1
Accept	image/png,image/*;q=0.8,*/*;q=0.5
Accept-Language	en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding	gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset	ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive	300
Connection	keep-alive
Referer	https://apophis.sslcatacombnetworking.com/~louislov/login.php

REDIRECT

Date	Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:50:30 GMT
Server	HTTPD Server
X-Powered-By	PHP/5.2.5
Location	http://louislovers.com/beta.php
Content-Length	0
Keep-Alive	timeout=5, max=97
Connection	Keep-Alive
Content-Type	text/html

Request Headers
Host	forum.louislovers.com
User-Agent	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1
Accept	text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Accept-Language	en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding	gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset	ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive	300
Connection	keep-alive
Cookie	PHPSESSID=87856fd8581931056714c9106587eccf; phpbb3_jnspi_u=53; phpbb3_jnspi_k=; phpbb3_jnspi_sid=895aff7ed9c1e5e0bbe28693a6d649e8

REDIRECT 2

Response Headers
Date	Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:50:31 GMT
Server	HTTPD Server
X-Powered-By	PHP/5.2.5
Expires	Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Cache-Control	no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
Pragma	no-cache
Location	http://louislovers.com/members_area.php
Content-Length	0
Keep-Alive	timeout=5, max=100
Connection	Keep-Alive
Content-Type	text/html

Request Headers
Host	louislovers.com
User-Agent	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1
Accept	text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Accept-Language	en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding	gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset	ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive	300
Connection	keep-alive
Cookie	PHPSESSID=87856fd8581931056714c9106587eccf; phpbb3_jnspi_u=53; phpbb3_jnspi_k=; phpbb3_jnspi_sid=895aff7ed9c1e5e0bbe28693a6d649e8


MEMBERS AREA
Response Headers
Date	Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:50:32 GMT
Server	HTTPD Server
X-Powered-By	PHP/5.2.5
Expires	Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Cache-Control	no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
Pragma	no-cache
Keep-Alive	timeout=5, max=99
Connection	Keep-Alive
Transfer-Encoding	chunked
Content-Type	text/html

Request Headers
Host	louislovers.com
User-Agent	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1
Accept	text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Accept-Language	en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding	gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset	ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive	300
Connection	keep-alive
Cookie	PHPSESSID=87856fd8581931056714c9106587eccf; phpbb3_jnspi_u=53; phpbb3_jnspi_k=; phpbb3_jnspi_sid=895aff7ed9c1e5e0bbe28693a6d649e8

BLOG AKA page that logs you out

Response Headers
Date	Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:53:50 GMT
Server	HTTPD Server
X-Powered-By	PHP/5.2.5
Expires	Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Cache-Control	no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
Pragma	no-cache
Keep-Alive	timeout=5, max=100
Connection	Keep-Alive
Transfer-Encoding	chunked
Content-Type	text/html; charset=UTF-8

Request Headers
Host	blog.louislovers.com
User-Agent	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1
Accept	text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Accept-Language	en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding	gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset	ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive	300
Connection	keep-alive
Referer	http://louislovers.com/members_area.php
Cookie	PHPSESSID=87856fd8581931056714c9106587eccf; phpbb3_jnspi_u=53; phpbb3_jnspi_k=; phpbb3_jnspi_sid=895aff7ed9c1e5e0bbe28693a6d649e8

BACK TO HOME PAGE AND NOW LOGGED OUT BUT STILL HAVE THE SAME COOKIES PASSED?
Response Headers
Date	Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:54:56 GMT
Server	HTTPD Server
X-Powered-By	PHP/5.2.5
Expires	Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Cache-Control	no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
Pragma	no-cache
Keep-Alive	timeout=5, max=100
Connection	Keep-Alive
Transfer-Encoding	chunked
Content-Type	text/html

Request Headers
Host	louislovers.com
User-Agent	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1
Accept	text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Accept-Language	en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding	gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset	ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive	300
Connection	keep-alive
Referer	http://blog.louislovers.com/
Cookie	PHPSESSID=87856fd8581931056714c9106587eccf; phpbb3_jnspi_u=53; phpbb3_jnspi_k=; phpbb3_jnspi_sid=895aff7ed9c1e5e0bbe28693a6d649e8

The PHP sessid is the same across your subdomains so no problem there. It appears you're not authenticating that way though? Or area you?
PHPBB would require a different session id, that it sets itself.

So the question is, how are you integrating the authentication and session for each of your services, the main site, forum and blog.

Is the sessions all based on PHPSESSID? If it is, then you probably have some logic errors in your blog app so its not knowing that the session is authenticated.

The PHP sessid is the same across your subdomains so no problem there. It appears you're not authenticating that way though? Or area you?
PHPBB would require a different session id, that it sets itself.

So the question is, how are you integrating the authentication and session for each of your services, the main site, forum and blog.

Is the sessions all based on PHPSESSID? If it is, then you probably have some logic errors in your blog app so its not knowing that the session is authenticated.

yeah -that would make sense except it works with one php.ini file and not the other?

PHPSESSID is used for everything except the forum - and we stay logged in at the forum

yeah -that would make sense except it works with one php.ini file and not the other?

PHPSESSID is used for everything except the forum - and we stay logged in at the forum

For the blog, do you have custom code that reads the PHPSESSID and deduces whether the user is logged in?
There may be a specific function or call there that is not supported on the server where it isn't working, related to some other php.ini setting, or file permissions etc. that you are overlooking?

You may want to do some echo'ing on the server that it isn't working on, to see if the blog actually reads the sessions, and each line along the way till it unsuccessfully processes it.

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