MD5 Verification?????

[MidWest]

I use to be a .Net programmer. Now I have moved to PHP. I downloaded PHP5, MySQL, and Apache. On all, the website said I need to verify the integrety of the download files before installing them. I need to check MD5, etc...

I have read the pages several times and am completely confused. WTF is MD5 and how do I verify it. I am completely lost. I never had to do this before with Microsoft languages.

Can someone please list the steps I need to use to verify MD5 on them? I have the latest version of each.

Thanks!

 

[skypanther]

Check out http://www.hybridized.org/forum/showthread.php?t=215

In my brief read, it would seem to answer your questions.

MD5 is a one-way hash. Given input A, you always get output B. Another input never creates output B. So, by checking the output, you can verify the input.

Tim