== and === compare PHP through MariaDB 5.5 issues with mysqli

I am having difficulties with your 5.5 database running in PHPMyAdmin on Host Presto! My PHP doesn't seem to allow == or === functionality through your database for Basic Authentication, and developing from, use from standard w3c html method web form input and inputs. Wanting to salt and cost the solution and having already spent time testing the service with the information available to me including wiki and Packt I wondered if you can advise me on building an upscaleable solution leading to financial transaction with your existing mysqli technology having tried many of the fetch combinations and! offered as options within the manuals. I am running on HPo $and have $_POST entry into the database and retrieval using AJAX q from a dropdown screen printing a mdb column. Yours Kindly, Mark Abraham