Peeds, I am using a very affordable (the cheapest) linux webhosting solution from 1&1,
and Webplate’s solution above is the best… I added that line at the top of the default drupal .htaccess file

it looks like some of the basic options available in this situation are outlined here:
http://faq.1and1.com/scripting_languages_supported/php/18.html

look at it this way peeds, the support team says you cannot change the register_global to off…

well fine, but is there any way like webplates to just force the use of php5.0+ which defaults register_global to off?