Apache or PHP Problem?

Hello Guys, I've come to notice something really funny that PHP does... And I can't explain it, the only possible suggestion I have to it's cause might be a corrupt installation of PHP or the server. It goes something like this. The server people upgraded to PHP4, and then the funny things started to happen: 1) first a file couldn't be called from a different file..example: in library.php function footer() { require(./footer.php); } now if I was to do this in lets say do the following in file.php: <? require(./info.php); footer(); ?> it would give me an error saying that the function is invalid... or it can't locate the file (the footer file is there). It would appear that PHP4 can't call a file from a file, from a file....(is this true?). 2) Secondly my files stopped work correctly because the UID (userID) variable that was always being passed inside a hidden form statement was never being passed correctly to the next page, or to itself. YET all the other form variables were being passed correctly. Now when I pass the UID via the URL it all seems to work fine... the other hidden variables, and other form variables seem to work ok, and the UID is passed correctly. Put it pack in a hidden form, and the UID is missing... It is only this variable $UID that PHP seems to be picking on... and unless this is a recent function I am clueless as to why. 3) Now the whole funny thing with these problems are that my scripts were working 99.9% (there was a problem with some date thing, which was fixed in newer versions of PHP) ok before they installed PHP4 onto the server, so naturally I told them to revert back to PHP3... and so they did. But now I still have those exact same problem with the most recent PHP3 (3.0.13) installed on the server! The UID not being passed, and the functions calling another file not being understood. I fixed my scripts to bypass these flaws (UID being passed via URL, and footer function directly implemented into the file...). But I am worried about not being able to write good understandable codes because of these limitations. Have any of you ever experienced such problems? And what would be your take on the cause of this happening? Also, what do you guys think the best remedy to such a problem is? My hunch is that the server people did a bad or corrupt installation of either PHP or Apache... and perhaps it be best if they uninstall and then reinstall them both? But is there a simpler solution? Thanks for your time and help. Best Regards, Yoed Anis