base_url() -> empty

[eluser]andreagam[/eluser]
Oliver, I can answer to your second question...
just open the autoload.php file in the config folder and on line 54 write

Code:

$autoload['helper'] = array( 'url');

you can autoload helpers and libraries that you largely use in your application.
I can't see anything wrong in your base_url() code, may be some other config is missing...