So I can't seem to access conf/settings.php, no matter what I do.
I cant get to it, or change its permissions via CPanel, or ftp, or http. Vanilla can access it fine, I would just like to be able to get to the internal settings, should the forum 'crash'. (and by crash I mean me messing it up :-P )
I can access mine via ftp. I'm not sure what its octal permissions are but it's got read & write for the owner and read access for group and others (755 I'm guessing).
What are you using to get to it via FTP? I always use Kate or Konqueror except when I'm forced to use Windows in which case I use Dreamweaver.
either fireFTP (addon for firefox) or MS Frontpage (geez I hate microsoft)
the permissions on all the files in /conf/ (except readme) is like 400 or 440 or something like that. I can't even change the file permissions in CPanel or ftp
You should really be able to change the permissions through cpanel. 400 is a little odd for settings.php, that would suggest it doesn't have write permissions for anyone which means Vanilla won't be able to update any configuration settings...
I would contact support about that, see if they know anything.