local install not pass variables ??

[Nobody/Anonymous]

Please forgive if this question has already been addressed,  I don't know enough about what I'm doing to search for the right terms.

anyhow, I'm sure this is a dumb question, but I have a log in page.  simple stuff.  you type the password in and it loads the page.  but it won't do this.  I just keep getting the log in screen.  The password entered doesn't "reload" to be checked by the if statement.  do you know what I mean?  I see the variable and it's value in the url string but php is not 'seeing it'. 

the script is this...

$pwd = "mypassword";

if ($passwd!=$pwd)
{
echo $pwd;
    echo "<form action=$gb_admin method='post'>";
    echo "<input type='password' name='passwd'>";
    echo "<br><input type='submit' value='OK'></form>";
    exit;
}

I guess I've got something not configured correctly?

can anyone help?

thank you so much!

Kurt

[Nobody/Anonymous]

well, I've answered my own question, but with caveats.

it seems that if you turn "register_globals" to = on (in the php.ini file) that my problem is solved.

but the comments above this param say :

; You should do your best to write your scripts so that they do not require
; register_globals to be on;  Using form variables as globals can easily lead
; to possible security problems, if the code is not very well thought of.

so how could I have written my script differently with regard to the comments above?

thanks,
Kurt