Problems with quotes in URL

Hi List I don't know what I'm doing wrong: Firstly, I upgraded from 4.0.1 to 4.3.1 and made sure that I have similar settings in php.ini wrt register_globals and magic_quotes. I now have problems with some of my apps: For instance: IN a mysql db, I would have a name like :[ whatever "whatever" ] I do a select on the table and then echo the name on a page, as well as add it to a url: page.php?myvar=$myvar where $myvar contains the [ whatever "whatever" ] Now, when I try to echo $myvar on the page.php, I don't get the entire story. I tried to addslashes() before the url line, I tried urlencode() and htmlspecialchars, all causes an echo of $myvar on the page.php page to only display whatever , or, whatever \ but NEVER, whatever "whatever" What am I doing wrong? Thanks