PHP: both sessions and mysql_pconnect() keep starting new sessions/processes - php

Question

Just want to apologise in advance for writing so much text. Here is the problem: I use a persistent connection to connect to the database with a wait_timeout of 60 seconds and I store session data in a MySQL table. The problem I have is that the sessions just don't seem to use their own rows; each page refresh keeps starting a new session instead of using the old one. What is more, the persistent connections mentioned earlier keep starting new processes insead of using their own as they should. Since these two problems seem to have the same origin, I decided to put them here together. My PHP code is the following:
(View it on Pastebin)
mysql_pconnect('localhost', 'root') or die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
mysql_set_charset('utf8');
mysql_select_db('azgoth') or die('Could not choose DB: ' . mysql_error());
session_set_cookie_params(3600,'/','www.azgoth',FALSE,TRUE);
session_set_save_handler('_open','_close','_read','_write','_destroy','_clean');
function _open(){
return true;}
function _close(){
return true;}
function _read($id){
$id = mysql_real_escape_string($id);
if ($result = mysql_query("SELECT data FROM sess_en WHERE id='$id'")) {
if (mysql_num_rows($result)) {
$record = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);
return $record['data'];}}
return '';}
function _write($id, $data){
$access = $_SERVER['REQUEST_TIME'];
$id = mysql_real_escape_string($id);
$access = mysql_real_escape_string($access);
$data = mysql_real_escape_string($data);
return mysql_query("REPLACE INTO sess_en VALUES('$id', '$access', '$data')");}
function _destroy($id){
$id = mysql_real_escape_string($id);
return mysql_query("DELETE FROM sess_en WHERE id='$id'");}
function _clean($max){
$old = $_SERVER['REQUEST_TIME'] - $max;
$old = mysql_real_escape_string($old);
return mysql_query("DELETE FROM sess_en WHERE access<'$old'");}
session_start();
Any ideas on what could be causing this issue?
EDIT: I thought at first that it was just in my head, but I can now confirm this: this weird thing keeps appearing randomly: it usually does, but not sometimes (rarely, in fact) doesn't..

Answer 1

The new session starting every time problem is probably because of the domain parameter you have passed to session_set_cookie_params(). You have passed www.azgoth, presumably because you have more than one top-level domain (TLD) and you want the cookies to be shared across all of them. This is not allowed. With what you have set, the TLD is azgoth, which is not (currently) possible, therefore the cookie will be invalid and will never be sent back to the server, ergo a new session will be started every time.
The persistent DB problem is probably server configuration related. The PHP manual states, on the page for mysql_pconnect():
Note, that these kind of links only work if you are using a module version of PHP. See the Persistent Database Connections section for more information.
...and...
Using persistent connections can require a bit of tuning of your Apache and MySQL configurations to ensure that you do not exceed the number of connections allowed by MySQL.