[newbie = cannot connect to DB on localhost]

you do not have to have a variable for ever column you can just specify the cols that you are going to give values for in the SQL statement.

eg INSERT into table (col1,col2,col3) values (col1val,col2val,col3val);

[cURL and string problems]

I have written a PHP script that logs into  a site and retrieves a file with cURL. The trouble is that when I try to add the string to other text it has it seems extra charactes there. an example is "textbox16戼㹲琀攀砀琀戀漀砀㄀㠀㰀牢>textbox204戼㹲琀攀砀琀戀漀砀㈀㄀". I am quite sure that the caracter encoding is different for some reason but I am unsure of how to fix it.