One of the web hosts tech support guys posted the possible fix. I noticed that paths to all cron scripts started at /usr/bin/blah/blah but the paths to the forum and phpinfo etc started with var/stuff.
It seems there's a hidden part of the paths that has to be added for cron use:
/usr/bin/php/
had to be added before the /var/www stuff. I'll know shortly if the file works, but it sounds logical <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
