In .htaccess under public_html, add the following:
suPHP_ConfigPath /home/user/public_html <Files php.ini> order allow,deny deny from all </Files>
In php.ini under public_html add the following, or any other settings that you want to use:
register_globals = On allow_url_fopen = On upload_max_filesize = 80M post_max_size = 80M memory_limit = 80M upload_tmp_dir = 80M max_execution_time = 20000
[Zend] zend_extension=/usr/local/ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_4.4.so zend_optimizer.optimization_level=15 zend_extension_manager.optimizer=/usr/local/Zend/lib/Optimizer-3.2.6 zend_extension_manager.optimizer_ts=/usr/local/Zend/lib/Optimizer_TS-3.2.6 zend_extension=/usr/local/Zend/lib/ZendExtensionManager.so zend_extension_ts=/usr/local/Zend/lib/ZendExtensionManager_TS.so
The zend and ioncube lines are added because a custom php.ini will disable those for your account if they are not contained within it. You can also just copy over /usr/local/lib/php.ini and make any changes that you want.