eCommerce . Opencart and PHP settings

[#1]

Is anyone familiar with Opencart and PHP?
I have tried to set up opencart within my hosting package and the hosting meets all requirements except one
PHP Version: 5.2.6
Register Globals: Off
Magic Quotes GPC: Off
File Uploads: On
Session Auto Start: Off
MySQL: On
GD: enabled
cURL: enabled
ZIP: On
I dont understand what Magic Quotes are but my hosting provider(streamline.net) says that they cannont change MQ to Off. They can only be on.
If it's possible I need to find a way to work around this
If anyone can help please try to explain it in simple terms with minimum technical jargon
I tried using the Opencart forum but so far have only had unhelpful answers such as change hosting provider.
That is not high on my list of options because I am locked in to a contract with them at £15+ a month
Any help would be very much appreciated

[#2]

Quote from: juliasdream

my hosting provider(streamline.net) says that they cannont change MQ to Off. They can only be on.

Sounds rather unhelpful of them. You can turn magic quotes off, but how you do it depends on whether php is run as a module or as cgi. If the former, you'd set a php flag in your .htaccess file. If the latter, you'd use a custom php.ini file. May sound technical, but pretty easy really. Perhaps ask your host whether php is run as a module or as cgi and we'll go from there.
Gabe