Hi, I have just got a dedicated server for my online directory. I have changed the ft_min_word_len to a value of 2, have rebooted the server and have checked the "Show variables like 'ft_min_word_len';" and this returns a value of 2. I have also reindexed the records. When I run MySQL (through Putty), select * from businesses WHERE (MATCH (businessname, keywords) AGAINST('car')); this returns 10 records. But when I use the exact same query using, include('opendb.php'); $sql = "select * from businesses WHERE (MATCH (businessname, keywords) AGAINST('car'))"; $result=mysql_query($sql,$db); $num=mysql_num_rows($result); etc etc. it returns nothing. I know there is nothing wrong with the code as the same code using a searchstring of four or more characters it works fine. It just seems that the mysql_query statement does not work on less than four characters even though I have changed it.. Has anyone got any ideas as this is driving me mad. thanks J