Can not find included file in remote server

Hi:

I’m a newbie in WordPress working in a site running fine locally but reporting the classical error in the remote server when an include (with the data to connect to a custom DB) can’t be found

Thanks in advance

Warning: require(../connections/connFTFront.php) [function.require]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /homepages/…/htdocs/fashion/blog/wp-content/themes/fashion/inc/dbConn.php on line 2

Fatal error: require() [function.require]: Failed opening required ‘../connections/connFTFront.php’ (include_path=’.:/usr/lib/php5′) in /homepages/…/htdocs/fashion/blog/wp-content/themes/fashion/inc/dbConn.php on line 2

Site structure
.htaccess
index.php
blog/wp-content/themes/fashion/
by-brand.php
inc/dbConn.php
connections/connFTFront.php
===================
by-brand.php

<?php
/*
Template Name: By brand
*/
require_once('inc/dbConn.php');

get_header(); ?>
  <div id="container">
  ...

===================
dbConn.php

<?php
  require('../connections/connFTFront.php');
  mysql_select_db($database_connFT, $connFT);
?>

===================
connFTFront.php

<?php
$hostname_connFT = "localhost";
$database_connFT = "db";
$username_connFT = "user";
$password_connFT = "pwd";
$connFT = mysql_pconnect($hostname_connFT, $username_connFT, $password_connFT) or trigger_error(mysql_error(),E_USER_ERROR);
?>

===================

WordPress 3.1
Development
OS X 10.5.8
XAMPP 1.7.3
PHP 5.3.1
include_path
.:/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/lib/php:/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/lib/php/pear

Production
Linux
PHP 5.2.17
include_path
.:/usr/lib/php5