css column height problems

Hi guys,

I am struggling a bit with getting the background of one of my css-created columns to be the height I want it to be. If you have a look at http://www.addictivemedia.com.au/clients/REW/ you will see (depending on your browser) that the left column behaves not the way I want it to:

- in IE 6 it creates an additional scrollbar (because it adds the height of the banner at the top to the 100% height I gave to the column)
- in all other browsers it is not as long as the column on the right

The effect I want to achieve is of course for both columns to have the same height and (if possible) to always push the footer to the bottom of the browser window.

I have tried the pushing to the bottom many times and out of previous posts I gather that it probably won't happen for all browsers. But I cannot figure out why the left column doesn't extend as far as the right one.

Thanks for your help!