PHP not supported by ISP

[Paul.Tait]

I have a php script for form processing that I'd like to use on the web. Before doing so, I thought I'd better check with our ISP (BT) that they were happy to let me use this and to my surprise, they sent me a mail back saying that they do not support php.

What I'm not clear on (and I don't really want to ask them for obvious reasons), is whether the script won't work because the server is not set up to allow it to work, or if they just won't offer me any help in case of problems and if I uploaded the script it would be bound to work regardless.

Any thoughts?

[kps]

I'm certain 99.99% that it will NOT work.

Your ISP would have to have PHP and other web services enabled on the server that hosts your pages.

MySQL, PHP, perl CGIs, Lasso, etc. are all services which most hosting companies charge extra for.

[kelly]

IAkps. Diana could probably tell you more.

[Diana]

Hi Paul,

To determine if your ISP has PHP installed and available for you, create a file and name it phpinfo.php. Inside that file put just this one line: (copy/paste it)

 

code:

<?php phpinfo(); ?> 

Then send that file to the ISP and visit it with your browser. If PHP is installed, you will get details. If the file shows up in your browser as just text or doesn't show at all, then there is no PHP.

I don't charge extra for the use of PHP on my server, but I do control who is able to use it. This way I know who is and who isn't. There are just enough insecurities from a server point of view that I like to know who is using it so I can keep an eye on the scripts. Scripts with known bugs have to come off or be fixed. This means that your ISP may have it, but hasn't made it available to you. That said, from the scenerio you state, they probably don't have it at all or they would be willing to tell you or charge you.  

see ya,

[Paul.Tait]

Thanks all for your comments.

Hi Diana

I did as you suggested and pointed my browser to the file. The code;
 Interestingly, the code that you gave me should have showed up here, but I got a Techsurvivors error message regarding php tags and so couldn't post the reply - what I saw when I did the test, was the code you gave me
came up in the window.

Does this mean that the script should work?

Thanks again

Paul

[Diana]

Hi Paul,

I posted a note here then re-read your message. I got all new insight so my original note was not sufficient.    

I don't think your ISP provides PHP. Since you sent the file and viewed it and all that showed up is the line of code, indications are that PHP isn't there.

The reason that you saw techsurvivors errors may be that when you tried to reply here, the line of PHP code got outside any UBB tags so the server tried to read it and failed. UBB prevents the use of HTML and scripts for security reasons. In the future, if you want to give an example of code, use the instant UBB Code button for CODE to surround your example.

see ya,
 
 [ 02-17-2003, 09:22 AM: Message edited by: Diana ]