Resolution Settings of Browsers

I'm designing a website for a local political organization. Its a dynamic site I'm using css/php/mysql. I'm trying to polish up the layout I designed and I currently have the layout centered and I want to add a background that is fixed. I was using a gradient background I had made in fireworks and it looked okay on the machine next to me that runs at 800x600, but on a different machine at 1280x1024 the background was too short and it began to repeat. Is there anyway I can tell the background to stretch itself if it is to small?

I had thought about using javascript to find the resolution of the persons browser and from there I could maybe just change the background image.

Open to thoughts and suggestions. Thanks.

could an admin move this to the html programming section

Make the image larger and let the browser size it down, the quality and look of an image that has been made to seem smaller, is much better than the quality and look of an image that has been made to become larger.

Imagine. 800x600 = An image that is 800 pixels wide, and 600 pixels high. When you view that same image stretched @ 1280x1024 you essentially just scaled each pixel from a 1 : 1 ratio to a 1.6 : 1.7 ratio... meaning the quality of the image is considerably reduced becuase not only are the pixels not whole numbers but they are also scaled in a fashion that does not allow them to maintain their original symetry.

Hence, I would suggest making a larger image and scaling it down, becuase worst case scenario it looks blurred when scaled down. Which is better than being 'aliased' at a larger size.

I tried making my background larger, but the machine I was using did not resize the background to fit. Instead it display what it can and the rest is terminated.

I want the background image to frame my page essentially so when they scroll down the page the background is fixed and scrolls with it keeping a constant frame around the navigation/content area.

Your original assumption was correct then, you would require a scripting langauge, such as javascript to detect the user's resolution and serve them the graphic that corresponds to their rez.

Won't work. You can detect screen res but that doen't mean the user's browser is set to that res. I my have my monitor set to 1280x1024, but surf at 800X600, while working with other open programs.

I still think it would work becuase the image would display as it should...