I was thinking the same thing about the if/else setup. This script was originally created by someone a few years ago and it DID work back then.

I rewrote the order of the script and I changed the if/else thinking that might be catching (or not catching) if the case may be. Now I'm certain everything is loading in the order it should but it still hangs up when it hits the test print #4.

The code really isn't that long or complex and I've been working on getting this to work since about 10am this morning. The entire script is posted below incase you or anyone else can come up with any other suggestions.

Thank you for your help.

#!/usr/bin/perl

use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);

use CGI qw(:all);
use CGI::Cookie;
use DBI;
use Digest::MD5 qw(md5_hex);

require("../funcs.cgi");
require("../con.cgi");

%cookies = fetch CGI::Cookie;


##################
# THEY ARE ALREADY LOGGED IN
#   SKIP THIS PAGE
###################

if (defined($cookies{'user_id'}))
{
    print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
    print "You are already logged in.";
    print "<script>window.location = 'index.cgi';</script>\n";
    exit;
}


##################
# THE FORM HAS BEEN SUBMITTED
#
###################

if (param())

    {
               print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
                use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);
        $username = (param('form_user'));
        $userpass = (param('form_pass'));
        $userpass = md5_hex($userpass);

        #check the database
print "test<br>";

        my $dbh = DBI->connect("DBI:mysql:$edt_dbase", $mysql_user, $m
+ysql_pass) or print DBI->errstr;
                my $sth = $dbh->prepare("SELECT * FROM $users_table WH
+ERE username = '$username' AND user_password = '$userpass'");
                $sth->execute;




print "test2<br>";
        
        if ($sth->rows < 1)
        {
            print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
            print "Login information incorrect.";
            $dbh->disconnect;
            print "<script>window.location = 'login.cgi';</script>\n";
            exit;
        }

        else
        {
            
print "test3<br>";
            while ($data = $sth->fetchrow_hashref or die $sth->errstr)
            {

print "test4<br>";
                $u_id = $$data{"user_id"};

                my $auth_user = new CGI::Cookie(-name        =>       
+ 'user_id',
                                                -value        =>      
+  $u_id);
     
                my $auth_pass = new CGI::Cookie(-name        =>       
+ 'user_pass',
                                                -value        =>      
+  $userpass);
                
                
                #$cookieset = $auth_user . ";" . $auth_pass;
                print "Set-Cookie: $auth_user\n";
                print "Set-Cookie: $auth_pass\n";
                
                print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
                print "Welcome " . $username . ", you have successfull
+y logged in.\n";
                                print "$u_id = UID";
                print "<script>window.location = 'index.cgi';</script>
+\n";
            }
        }
        $dbh->disconnect;

exit;

    }


else
{
##################
# NOTHING IS HAPPENING SO LET'S
#  PRINT THE FORM
###################
    {
        print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

        print qq~

        <table border='1'>
        <form method="post" action="">
        <tr>
            <td>
                <b>Username:</b>
            </td>

            <td>
                <input type='text' length='30' name='form_user'>
            </td>
        </tr>

        <tr>
            <td>
                <b>Password:</b>
            </td>

            <td>
                <input type='password' length='30' name='form_pass'>
            </td>
        </tr>
        
        <tr>
            <td colspan='2'>
                <input type='submit'>
            </td>
        </tr>
        </form>
        </table>

        ~;
    }
}


    
#print "(..)";
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