differences between ini_set() with php cgi and module?

First of all, does php cgi use php.ini at all? Is it the exact same behavior as the module version in realtion to php.ini settings and the ability to change them with ini_set()? My ISP runs php as a cgi, version He tells me that I cannot change php.ini variable, upload_max_filesize to larger than 2M, although he says I can decrease it. This does not make sense to me - if ini_set() can decrease the value, why can't it be increased? Is there some secret way the ISP can limit php at compile time or some thing? I have tested ini_set() with phpinfo() and the value I set for upload_max_filesize is correctly being reported by phpinfo(), yet I do not know if phpinfo() is reporting the truth about php behavior since I am unable to upload files greater than 2M. The problem I am working on is that the browser reports "connection failure" when I try to upload large files; same script works fine with small files < 1M. In an attempt to correct the file upload problem, I have also set: // this is to avoid having the browser terminate file uploads: ini_set( "ignore_user_abort", true ); ini_set( "max_execution_time", false ); //this doesn't seem to work: ignore_user_abort( true ); set_time_limit( 0 ); Thanks for any insights. - greg keraunen