permanent db connections

Hi there, I am tring to locate some errors which pop up once in a while. Now I have tracked them done to a point where permanent db connections could be involved. Every Page in my system where a db (mysql) is involved connects to the db server. This seems to be the reason why in some cases the values pulled out of the db re not pressent. I did outcomment the connect statement and the db connection still works. But why??!! What would be a propper way to deal with the connect statement. I know that persistant connects are faster and my system supports them. But what is a persistant connection anyway? Is is persistant when the user is browsing all the sites in my sytem? And when do I have to build the connection? Thanx for any help on that, Andy