PHP not installed?

[#1]

Hi all, the phone support suggested i post this on here, so here I am.
I am working on a site hosted on plusnet, I believe it's a long standing account which was originally Force9. The current site is all html and I am building the new site in PHP.
When I upload the php files then go to view them in a browser, the browser just prompts to download. From previos experience this is usually because PHP is not installed, yet the person on the phone support thought it should be and I can see there are others of you successfully serving php driven sites on PlusNet. Which leaves me baffled.
Anyone else come across this with PlusNet and if so how did you resolve with them?
kind regards
Matt

[#2]

Hi janvs,
Are you uploading the php files to your normal webspace (www.username.force9.co.uk)? If so you need to FTP them to your CGI space instead as that's where PHP will be able to run from, you can find the details here: http://www.plus.net/support/hosting/webspace/webspace_details.shtml#cgiSpace

[#3]

Hi there, thanks for the reply. I think it must be as I see their host is 'homepages.force9.net'
I have been asked to do their new websites which are currently all hosted with yourselves, so I am not on their Force9 connection so wouldn't be able to do this. I presume it is like this because it's a relatively basic hosting backage that comes bundled with their service? Are there any upgrade options available so we don't have to take the hosting away from PlusNet?
thanks again, Matt

[#4]

Does their account type provide CGI (check here). If so have they activated it (and MySQL)? Even though the page linked to by Chris says one has to be on a Force9 connection to FTP to Force9 CGI I suspect any Plusnet connection will work - have you tried?

[#5]

Thanks for the reply. They look to have a Netstart account which has CGI activated on it. I tried to connect from where I work though and I cannot, presumably because I am on neither a Force9 or PlusNet connection.
Is there no conventional hosting package they can upgrade to? I am an external company you see and have been asked to work on their websites, so I don't have a PlusNet connection but I want to leave the hosting with PlusNet if possible.
thanks again for the help

[#6]

Any other hosting provided by Plusnet would be chargeable (http://www.payh.co.uk/).
You need to get them to dedicate a PC for use which you can access via RDP, VNC or similar (you'll need to set up forwarding on their router). You then use that PC to upload the files to the CCGI server.