I am running my own server, and I suspect my php install is to blame for this problem. This simple code:
<?php
print("$var is the variable in this case");
?>
when you enter something like this:
http://www.mysite.com/test.php?var=foo
I get in response:
is the variable in this case
it will ignore any variables passed through from the browser.
if I set a value in the script, it works just fine.
does this sound familiar to anyone? Configuration problem, maybe? or should I reinstall php and everything?