i've seen a few posts regarding this issue, and i've tried the resolutions,
but i keep running into the same problem.

i'm trying to compile OpenSSL with the use of rsaref-2.0 (i'm running
through this tutorial
http://www.devshed.com/c/a/PHP/The-S...MySQL-and-PHP/).

i hit the following error:
---------------------------------
if [ "" = "hpux-shared" -o "" = "darwin-shared" ] ; then \
gcc -o openssl -DMONOLITH -I.. -I../include -DOPENSSL_NO_KRB5 -O
openssl.o ve
rify.o asn1pars.o req.o dgst.o dh.o dhparam.o enc.o passwd.o gendh.o
errstr.o ca
.o pkcs7.o crl2p7.o crl.o rsa.o rsautl.o dsa.o dsaparam.o x509.o genrsa.o
gendsa
.o s_server.o s_client.o speed.o s_time.o apps.o s_cb.o s_socket.o
app_rand.o ve
rsion.o sess_id.o ciphers.o nseq.o pkcs12.o pkcs8.o spkac.o smime.o rand.o
engin
e.o ocsp.o ../libssl.a ../libcrypto.a ; \
else \
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=..:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH \
gcc -o openssl -DMONOLITH -I.. -I../include -DOPENSSL_NO_KRB5 -O
openssl.o ve
rify.o asn1pars.o req.o dgst.o dh.o dhparam.o enc.o passwd.o gendh.o
errstr.o ca
.o pkcs7.o crl2p7.o crl.o rsa.o rsautl.o dsa.o dsaparam.o x509.o genrsa.o
gendsa
.o s_server.o s_client.o speed.o s_time.o apps.o s_cb.o s_socket.o
app_rand.o ve
rsion.o sess_id.o ciphers.o nseq.o pkcs12.o pkcs8.o spkac.o smime.o rand.o
engin
e.o ocsp.o -L.. -lssl -L.. -lcrypto ; \
fi
Undefined first referenced
symbol in file
getsockopt ../libcrypto.a(b_sock.o)
listen s_socket.o
connect s_socket.o
shutdown s_server.o
socket s_socket.o
getservbyname s_socket.o
gethostbyname s_socket.o
accept s_socket.o
bind s_socket.o
setsockopt s_socket.o
gethostbyaddr s_socket.o
ld: fatal: Symbol referencing errors. No output written to openssl
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[1]: *** [openssl] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/home/austin/openssl-0.9.7c/apps'
make: *** [sub_all] Error 1
-----------------------------------

i've added binutils, i'm sure i have everything in my path (/usr/local/bin,
/usr/local/include, /usr/local/lib)

so right now, i'm really outta ideas on how to resolve this issue.

which path did you add them to?

you need to add them to this path and export it:
LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Library paths goto : LD_LIBRARY_PATH
Execuateble path goto: PATH