Some Newbie cgi/php questions

[#1]

Hi I hope some one out there can help.
I've never used CGI or PHP before and I'm looking for some guidance as I need to support a CGI/PHP application
1) I've enable CGI and SQL on my account.
2) Using IE I've FTP files up to a test folder on ftp://cshell.plus.net under my account name.
3) Very simple "hello world" script in PHP
4) This resulted in Server 500 error when I accessed it via http://ccgi.myname.plus.com. A bit of research indicated a permissions problem so I set the permission on the file and folder to be owner rwx, group r_x, user r_x. This now works.
Q1) Are these the right permissions?
Q2)By setting the permission on the folder it does not appear that they are inherited by files I subsequently place there. As the application uses lots of PHP files is there any way to do a bulk replace of permission? IE will only do one at a time!
Q3) When I get this working is there any way to map ccgi.myname.plus.com to mydomain.co.uk?
Thanks in advance
Mark

[#2]

Hi Mark,
Q1 I'd encourage you to use the permissions suggested in section 6 of the FAQ.
Q2 There's a script linked from section 6 of the FAQ that will set permissions for you.
Q3 Is yourdomain.co.uk hosted by Plusnet?
Gabe

[#3]

Thanks for the swift response Gabe
Thanks for the pointer to the script. I'll see if I can get it to work.
As for Q3, yes the domain name is hosted by plusnet.
Mark

[#4]

That makes it easier. There's a section in the member centre for domain names where you can configure them for yourself and a couple of help pages under help & support->hosting services->domains to guide you through. Does your domain currently point at homepages?
Gabe

[#5]

Yes my domain is hosted currently under the /htdocs/ dir. I see in the help and support pages they give an example of using a cname record. www cname ccgi.plus.net  I cannot see how that would work unless I put the whole site on the ccgi server as that would appear to redirect www.mydomain.co.uk to ccgi.plus.net. Unless plus net are doing something clever with the http host header field.

[#6]

Yes, that's right, www would have to be pointed at either homepages or ccgi, but not both. If you want to leave most of your site on homepages and just run a few scripts on ccgi using a ccgi subdomain, you could set an extra record:
ccgi.yourdomain.co.uk.  a  84.92.1.4
remembering the dot after the uk.
If you want everything under the www subdomain then you would have to move your content from homepages to ccgi and replace the records pointing at homepages.
Gabe

[#7]

Thanks Gabe
I understand now. I take it 84.92.1.4 is the IP of the CGI server?
Mark

[#8]

Yup.
I guess the other thing to mention would be that it can take a while for record changes to propagate.
Gabe

[#9]

While I have your attention could I as just one more question?
Is there any way I can upload to the CGI server without being connected via a Plusnet connection?
Oops thats two questions and I've already asked it 

[#10]

Yes and No
Yes: you can ask another question.
No: you have to be connected to Plusnet.

[#11]

I thought that would be the case 
Anyway thanks for all your help
Mark