Uploading basic webpages, images etc. is nice and easy - you won’t need to change any file permissions at all.

Infact, you should only need to do this if you’re setting up a slightly more advanced small business website and will be using scripts (such as CGI or PHP scripts) to automate some of the management of your site and/or add extra functionality.

The principle of file permissions - the so-called “CHMOD” function - is to determine who is allowed to do what to the various files on your web hosting account.

A little example may help to explain this further…

If any visitor to your site could change the HTML files that make up your web pages, then your site could completely change overnight without your authorization. People could edit your content, delete your articles, add their own adverts to your pages and so on. Obviously not good.

But on the other hand if someone wants to sign up to use your discussion forum but they’re not authorized to modify the file that saves user’s access codes - they’ll never be able to register or log in.

So different script files on your web hosting account will need different permissions (CHMOD commands) to allow them to work correctly but not open up your site to some serious security threats.

Each of these scripts will come with detailed instructions on which files need their permissions changed and to what - which is typically a numerical value but may take other forms.

The way you change file permissions is with your FTP software.

Firstly upload your files to your hosting account just like any others, then locate the files whose permissions you need to change.

Highlight each in turn by clicking it once with the left mouse button, then click the right mouse button to bring up a popup menu.

You should find “CHMOD” or “File Permissions” or something similar as an option, so simply select it and change the permissions to exactly what the script installation file specifies.

Once you’ve changed the file permissions and clicked “OK” then you can move onto the next file to be changed until you’ve finished them all.

One other point worth making is the next file whose permission you try to change will likely show as already having the correct permission. This is normal but isn’t showing you what the CHMOD status of the next file is but rather the status of the *last* file you changed - so if in doubt - change it anyway and confirm it.