Help installing PHP on server

I'm new to the PHP world so be easy on me.

I want to know the best way to install PHP onto our webserver here at work, and what files I need to do so.
I've downloaded these two files:

PHP 4.3.4 zip package
and
PHP 4.3.4 installer

Both from php.net's download page. I've installed both items but my PHP pages still are not being generated. I at first thought the code was flawed so I copied and pasted the code I'm practicing on with a tutorial and I still just got a blank screen when I pretty my form button. I view the source and I can see my PHP code so I know it's not being generated.

I've gone through the manual on php.net and still cannot figure anything out. So if one of you could walk me through and what to do as if I was computer illiterate I would greatly appreciate it. Also direct me to any additional files I may need in order to get this running.

Thanks in advance,
The Squirrel

what operating system and web server are you using?

I was just coming back to post that. Forgot to include it in orginal message.

Server is SBS 2000 and IIS is whatever came with 2000. I believe 4 or 5. I can't find which version for some reason.

The Squirrel

SBS?

Small Business Server - It's been a habit of mine to always include that information when telling which OS we run.

The Squirrel

the installation should have created a folder called PHP. In that folder is a file called install.txt. there are step by step instructions for installing PHP under IIS as a CGI or as an ASAPI Module. I know there are a couple of tutorials out there, I will try to locate them and post the URLs. Unfortunatly the installer does not always work, so you will need to set up PHP by hand.

Ahhh ok, I'll look through the install.txt file and see what I can come up with. (I've always been bad about reading readmes)

Thanks for the help so far. Those links would prove useful as well, but if you can't find them that's fine.

I'll post back here in a little bit to let you know how it's going.

Thanks,
The Squirrel

take a look at the following article...

http://www.phpbuilder.com/columns/jayesh20021029.php3

it might help...

Ok, well still no results so far. I followed instructions on the page you linked and nothing resulted from that, all settings the way they should be and I did the test.php file and I got a page cannot be displayed when I went to http://localhost/test.php as per the instructions.

I found the following page http://www.umesd.k12.or.us/php/win32install.html and followed its instructions down the to letter and I got a little bit further then the page cannot be displayed message.

In the instructions is the following:
To test your installation, create a file called phpinfo.php in your document root directory and stick this code inside it: <? phpinfo(); ?>
Save the file and open your browser to: http://YOUR_IP_HERE/phpinfo.php and everything should be AOK.

I follow those and create the phpinfo.php file with the code and I save it to... C:Inetpubwwwroot But once I enter the address to access the .php file I get this in my browser:
"Warning: Unknown(D:web sites5-26-03phpinfo.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in Unknown on line 0

Warning: (null)(): Failed opening 'D:web sites5-26-03phpinfo.php' for inclusion (include_path='.;c:php4pear') in Unknown on line 0"

Which is more then I was getting so I must be getting closer. Any ideas or recommendations would be greatly appreciated as I'm stumpped right now.

Thanks,
The Squirrel

Edit: Nevermind. I just saved the file to wrong location. It all works fine now when I save it in my website directory. Sweet! Thanks for all the help you provided and I'm sure you'll be seeing more of me as I dig deeper into coding.

Have any of you ever had problems with Outlook Web Access after installing PHP? We run our own webserver/exchange server and ever since I installed PHP, web access from outside our intranet has not been working like it should.

Normally after you go to www.ourdomain.com/exchange it will bring up a box and you log in and then you have access to your inbox should you happen to be out of the office, but it is not like that anymore.

Now it pops up and you enter your login information and then it takes you to a directory page with all the users names listed, if you select your name it will then ask you again for your login information and then it will take you to a text display of your message subjects that are in your inbox.

Have any of you ever expierienced this? I don't know if this is tied into PHP or not but I noticed it was working until I installed PHP.

The Squirrel