Somthing to add, if i request the page form a browser on the machine running apache and php there is no problem if i call the script form a computer on the network there is a problem is there a proble with my apahce vhosts config here is the listing...
<VirtualHost 192.168.0.4>
ServerName www.tkit.co.uk
ServerAdmin webmaster@tkit.co.uk
DocumentRoot /home/tkit/web/
ErrorLog logs/tkit.co.uk-error_log
CustomLog logs/tkit.co.uk-access_log common
DirectoryIndex index.html /cgi-bin/index.pl index.shtml index.php
<Directory "/home/tkit/web/">
Options Indexes MultiViews SymLinksIfOwnerMatch Includes
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
thanks kieran