base_url() doesn't work

[eluser]macleodjb[/eluser]
i understand what your saying but i think my ultimate problem is that my local server is not recognizing the function it seems. In theory it shouldn't matter what i write in the file. in my case "c:/web" if the function was recognized it should still print "c:/web" where ever the function is called? Is my thinking right or wrong? Because right now when ever i have this function un-commented out it kills the script on the page.

i uploaded this to my server...

here's the error
Fatal error: Call to undefined function base_url()