i installed debian as a web server and php4 it was working correctly but then i installed slack
i removed it because i just wanted to chk it out and now php wont work correctly ive removed all web server software php and mysql, apache config files apt installed all and still no work

I can't answer your post but read this may be it can help:
PHP is a scripting language that is suited for web dev and can be embeded in HTML
If your server support php , you will just need to create .php and the serve will parse
You want to save bandwidth so install apache, php , mysql.
If you have diff installing php , you can download a preconfigured php package.

Here 's how to install:
You can use php for : 1. server side scripting 2. command line scripting 3. client side gui application
You must connect PHP to the server, server php has a direct module interface (sAPI) you can also setup cgi executabe to your server.
Add to /etc/apt/sources.lists :
deb http://packages.dotdeb.org stable all
deb-src http://packages.dotdeb.org stable all
than:
apt-get install libapache-mod-php4
/erc/init.d/apache stop
/etc/int.d/apache start

did all that when i goto a php page web browser doesnt know what to do with pulls up a dialog box

For apache 1.3:
For apache 2:

already installed