how come i can include files by typing include("left.php") but when i type include("http://www.blah.com/left.php") it gives me an error?
thanks

server side commands (such as include) are based on having the files directly on the same server, thus having a full URL will not work. the files must be on the same server as the web page using the include command.

yes i know you cant include something from a different server. the file is on my server, i just did that because i had many pages in different directories... i tried using readfile() and it works good. thanks

just use a path it works better :)

SSI will not work if your web host do not support SSI. And I like the PHP Include tag check the tuturial section something like 'User Submitted Tuturials', on there i wrote a small tuturial doing this.

nm