Setting Permissions

Security permissions can be set on your web site to restrict access by your site from ASP/CGI scripts to certain files and folders. Security permissions can also be set to prevent people viewing your site from gaining access to certain parts of the web site without a user name and password. When your site is set up the default security permissions set on your folders is Read Only on all folders but the 'cgi-bin' folder. This means that your scripts cannot write to the folders or change files inadvertently or maliciously and is done to improve security on your site. However there may be certain instances where you actually want your scripts to make modifications e.g. a guest book script may need to write to a file. In this instance the folder containing the files needs to have its permissions set to 'Change' which allows files to be written to, modified or deleted in that folder.

 

The Control Panel allows you to change the permissions on your site for any of your site folders other than the root folder for your domain or the www folder. These are restricted for security reasons.

 

Please note: Setting permissions incorrectly can leave your site insecure.  This  is an advanced feature for specific purposes such as giving your site the ability to write files or modify a database in a particular folder. If you do not have a specific reason to change the permissions for your site it is best to leave them as they are. For security reasons we do not allow you to change the root folder for your domain or the WWW  folder.

 

  • Ensure you are connected to the internet and logged on to the Control Panel

  • Click the Permissions icon on the left of the Control Panel

  • Click the Get Folders button. Your web site folders will then be displayed. By selecting each folder you can see what the current permissions are:

 

 

In the above example the 'examples' folder has Read (RX) permissions.

  • To change permissions select the folder you wish to change the permissions for

  • Select the permissions you want for the folder from the drop-down list The folder should now be highlighted in blue. You may change permissions for as many folders as you want. The following screen-shot shows how the Control Panel looks after selecting Change permissions for the 'examples' folder.

 

 

  • Once you are happy with the permissions you have set for your folders click the Apply button and they will be changed on your server. If you make a mistake you can clear any changes you have made by clicking the Get Folders   button again and no changes will be made.