cannot read from above directory

[n3ls0n]

Hi all,

i am sure some of you had already stumped on a case similar to mine, but i cannot find any pointers to the right directorion.
The problem is this: I have a file conf.inc.php, which has the credentials to access the Mysql Database. According to some experts, this kind of file should not reside in the same directory has the website, but instead in a upper directory, for security reasons. I have done that, but it seems that although i have a include in the index.php file, the conf.inc.php never gets read and a Apache error appears on the webpage (Access denied for user 'apache'@'localhost' (using password: NO)).
The directory tree is this:
/html
conf.inc.php
/site
index.php

Odd stuff:
1) if i copy the conf.inc.php into the /site directory, the website works perfectly (although the include file points to the above directory) can´t understand this behaviour.
2) if i add the apache user to mysql, the error says that there is no database selected.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Nelson.

[falko]

Can you go to the html directory and post the output of

ls -la

?
Can you also post the Apache vhost configuration here?