md5() with rand() || Strange results, need help....

Hey all. I'm running an online sport report that is member protected; i.e. users need to login to gain site access. When a new user signs up, I set their username to their email address & generate a temporary password for them using rand() & md5(): $username = strip_illegals($_POST['email']); $plain_pass = rand(); $password = md5($plain_pass); I then insert their login info into our member's table. Unexpectedly, when users attempt to login no matching record is found. Their login submits two post fields (username & password): $username = trim(strtolower($_POST['username'])); $password = trim(strtolower($_POST['password')); $password = md5($password); The username matches, but the password does not -- I've echoed the md5'd submitted password & maddenlingly, it doesn't match. I've had no problem using md5() before and am completely dumbfounded as to why this is not working. If anyone has any clues as to what might be happening; i.e. why the md5'd submitted plain text password does not match the stored md5'd password, please, please let me know. The email complaints are piling up and I'm getting nowhere..... --Noah --