also with those, how do i start PHP command line, if anyone knows. thanks in advance, also if anyone can answer this last question i'd be most greatful. If i have my mysql databases on a phpmyadmin on my server, can i remotely host them to a server i've paid for. like can i create dbs and use them from my own machine. You see my apache server is brand new, it doesn't have ip forwarding (which i dunno how to go about doing that) or none of that other stuff it needs in order to be viewable to the world. but i wasnt sure whether or not it could be remotely usable, for mysql needs. THANKS again!

You usually start stuff by running the script in /etc/init.d

If you want the apache and mysql to automatically start when you boot, use the update-rc.d command to automatically create the relevant runlevel links.

Instead of apache, use the name of the script in /etc/init.d . This might be "apache2" if you installed apache version 2.0 and not apache version 1.1

Regarding the PHP command line, try

Also take a look a the man page for php. Lots of good info there.

About connecting to MYSQL from a remote location, where remote is "not localhost" - this is disabled by default in mysql's configuration file. Edit it, and reenable it (see the comments in the file /etc/mysql/my.cnf ). Try again after that.

I am going to attempt to do all you've said, i appreciate your help without i might not have figured much of that out.

You're my hero right now. As you prescribed everything is as it should be. I have a prob in my apache, but now i know how to start/restart and all of that

php runs as you told me it would.

mysql i'm doing that when i can here in a second

all and all thanks so much.