Problem 1 of 2 - Sessions not working

Gentlefolk, I'm having trouble getting session functionality.  Win2K SP4, IIS 5.?, PHP v4.3.5, MySQL v3.23.49 . . . does that cover the basics? My PHP.INI file appears to be properly configured for session usage - at least, it is set according to what document specs I've been able to find.  I first encountered this a few weeks ago while working on a database app.  In that case, I finally gave up and reworked the app so that entire pages became functions that I could call from the index page - even include files could not access session variables {sigh /}.  However, now I need to implement a chat app - we've selected PHPOpenChat, v3.0.1 - that makes use of sessions, and I cannot find a way to make session data available.  Whenever I try to load a page that has session declarations, IE (v6.0.2800.1106) provides, "CGI Timeout.  The specified CGI Application exceeded the allowed time for processing.  The server has deleted the process," and Firefox (v1.0.1) does the same. In trying to find a way for this to work, I've tried every way listed in the PHP manual of establishing a session and setting/calling session variables.  In the simplest incarnation, the calling page is simply <?     session_start();     $_SESSION["testvar"]="eureka"; . . code to create a form with a submit button to call next page . . . ?> and the called page is even simpler, <?     session_start();     $a=$_SESSION["testvar"];     echo "a=$a<br />"; ?> I've tried those two pages with every syntactical variant I've been able to find, but can't make any of 'em work.  Ok, that, to me, implies that there's something wrong with my PHP.INI file in regard to sessions, but I cannot for the life of me determine what.  I've looked at that file so long now that I probably couldn't see an error if it were in the Cyrillic alphabet {sigh /}. So, does anyone have any ideas on what might be wrong?  Or should I just shoot myself and be done with it? 'Preciate any help forthcoming. Make a good day . . . . . barn ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There is no love sincerer than the love of food. - George Bernard Shaw ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~