External PRG to access VB Database

[Snapperhaed]

No help here yet eh. Same on VBulletin.Com ... Still been pecking at it all weekend and I came to the conclusion that all info given here and Vbull.Com is wrong. It almost seems like its some big secret since none of the 'big wigs' are willing to chime in and straighten out the many who have asked the same thing.

The theory of the new changed hashing is:

MD5 the Normal Password (1st MD5)
Add the Salt to the end of the MD5 above and MD5 it (2nd MD5)

Guess what. That simply does not work, even when using this to make the salt:

// ###################### Start makesalt #######################
// generates a totally random string of $length chars
function vbulletin_addedsalt($length = 3)
{
$salt = '';
for ($i = 0; $i < $length; $i++)
{
$salt .= chr(rand(32, 126));
}
return $salt;
}

(The above deriven from /includes/functions.php)

Heres the excerpt from the code ive been working on:

$q = $db->query("SELECT password, usergroupid
FROM {$vb_db}user
WHERE username='$member[login]'
");
list($p,$ul) = mysql_fetch_row($q);
$dat = date('M d, Y');
// The following is a new variable to set the passworddate
$pde = date('Y d, M');

// Beginning of Salt Routine Ripped from VB3 /includes/functions.php

$saltlength = 3;
$salt = '';
for ($i = 0; $i < $saltlength; $i++)
$salt .= chr(rand(32, 126));

// End of Salt Routine Random Generation

// First Normal Password Hash

$pass = md5($member['pass']);

// ReName the Variable Here for Next Hash

$pash = $pass;

// Add some Salt and Hash it again

$pass = md5($pash) . $salt;

// End of New MD5 Dual Hash Routine

if (!$ul){ //user not exists
$db->query($s = "INSERT INTO {$vb_db}user
(usergroupid, displaygroupid, username, password, passworddate, email, styleid, parentemail, showvbcode,
customtitle, joindate, daysprune, lastvisit, lastactivity, lastpost, posts, reputation, reputationlevelid,
timezoneoffset, pmpopup, avatarid, avatarrevision, options, maxposts, startofweek, referrerid, languageid,
emailstamp, threadedmode, autosubscribe, pmtotal, pmunread, salt)

VALUES

($max, $max, '$member[login]', '$pass', '$pde', '$member[email]', 0, '$member[email]', 1,
0, unix_timestamp(), -1, unix_timestamp(), unix_timestamp(), 0, 0, 10, 5,
-7, 1, 0, 0, 7255, -1, 1, 0, 1,
0, 0, 0, 0, 0, '$salt')");

$vb_user_id = mysql_insert_id();
$db->query($s = "INSERT INTO {$vb_db}userfield
(userid) VALUES ($vb_user_id)
");

Maybe it does work, and my code is bad. I cant seem to find it anywhere if it is. Would be nice for someone who actually knows that their doing (and what their talking bout) to step up and offer some assistance. It'd sure be appreciated.

Just to clarify what it is I am doing:

The user comes to MY php application and creates himself an account. Upon doing so, my app sends the data to the SQL database of VBull and creates himself an account there. The user -never- registers directly via VBull. The above script that I have posted works, but the password is wrong. To obtain having the correct password, you dont do 2 seperate pass hashes, you do one:

IE: $pass = md5(md5($member['pass']) . $salt);

That works just fine. However - When a user goes to VBull, and is asked for his username and password, he enters it, hes told its been accepted and goes to redirect him to the main forums page, the screen scroll bar (normally located on the far right of all browsers), is moved to the left, and is asked to login again, with the text and formatting of the forums changed and frankly, bassackwards. Damnedest thing ive ever seen.

Lil help to resolve this driving-me-crazy-having-self-taught-myself-this-and-working-on-it-all-weekend-to-get-this-far-and-still-be-this-short problem?!

Thanks to any assistance you can provide me.