Poor sap desperate to solve Shared object problem. Please help if you can.

[MikeZdoesit]

Hey guys I'm having a lot of trouble with what I thought was a simple Shared object (although I'm not to sure anymore). Basically I haven't been able to get my intro swf on my index.php page to start from a particular frame halfway after about 15mins when the page is refreshed. I was using :

if (loaded == total)
   {
      if (!((_root.today-_root.so.data.val)<_root.period))
      {
         _root.so.data.val = _root.today;
         _root.so.flush();
         _root.gotoAndPlay("intro");
      }
      else
      {
         _root.so.data.val = _root.today;
         _root.par = "skip";
         _root.gotoAndPlay("rest");
      }
   }

and the timer:

var today = new Date();
var so:SharedObject = SharedObject.getLocal("time");
var period = 15000;

(to control timing).

This worked fine in an index.html but when I moved the swf to an index.php page running in Joomla the SO just did nothing. After days of failure and not being able to understand whats wrong, I have no idea what to do or how to get the result I need. I've tried many different scripts but all with no luck and jumping through a window at this point is starting to look attractive.

I tried Experts Exchange (paid for a subscription and points) but got the run around and no answers (I had two 'Experts' abuse me with this direct Quote: 'i don't really know what you mean by a cookie. It does sound alien' and another simply give me a link to macromedia help files without even any particular area to read). In total 4 unsolved questions with no answers and no help what so ever. I might as well of burned my money.

If anyone can help me understand whats wrong or help me solve this problem, please let me know - it would mean a lot to me. Thank you for your time.