Can you please try the following:

1) is this true for w2k too? Many problems reported with '98 are related to the specific OS and aren't valid for W2k and equal systems
2) Can you try http://snaps.php.net/win32/php4-win32-200206150200.zip ?

Hello!

Sorry, it took such a long time. But now I could test the script on Win 2K. The same problem occurs, so it's not only a Win 98 related problem.

Same procedure:
I call a PHP-script via IE 5.0 Browser (don't matters which browser is in use). This script includes another PHP-script via http-request using the function include(). 
And the second PHP-script loads a file via http using the function file(). If you try the same operating on local file system it will work! But trying to use http
on Win OS will cause an error, don't matters if you are using Apache, IIS or PWS.   

So e.g.: 
<?php
....
include ("http:/www.test.net/testscript.php");
....
?>

Will result to an error, if the testscript.php tries to load another file:

<?php
....
$data = file ("http:/www.test.net/testtext.txt");
....
?>


This will work! Note: the include() will not use http!

<?php
....
include ("testscript.php");
....
?>


testscript.php:
<?php
....
$data = file ("http:/www.test.net/testtext.txt");
....
?>

Maybe you can help me!
As I already told, this problem won't occure on Linux.

Thankyou!

Best regards,
Rudolf Staribacher

PS: The link you gave me (http://snaps.php.net/win32/php4-win32-200206150200.zip), seems to be not correct.

Win32 does not allow include() via http.  The documentation mentions this in php.net/include as of a month ago, and has been in 'remote files' section for a long while.  Here's the <warning>:

"The Windows version of PHP currently does not support remote file accessing for this function, even if allow_url_fopen is enabled."
This entity, called &warn.no-win32-fopen-wrapper;, is used throughout the docs now.