I am having trouble installing a shout box and this is what is says index.php: file exists!, Chmod Incorrect, Please Chmod 777. what does that mean?

depending on your FTP program(hopefully you're using FTP) usually if you right click on the file a menu will appear and an option to "CHOMD" is there, just click it and enter 777 to set permissions

CHMOD is a permissions system for Unix and Linux. It provides for a high-level of security and yeah...basically you chmod stuff so that a script can write or read to/from a file...

ok well i am with lycos and they have an ftp..but i dont think they have that thing to put it as 777..so how would i do that manualy?

i think lycos is combined with tripod which i believe does not allow chmod to be adjusted or changed for security reasons. that is for the free pages. if you pay them for hosting, the matter may be different.

well there is a way to chmod it because thats what i did to other php scripts but i am not chmoding these files right... i must be doing somethin wrong somehow but i dont know what..do i have to put them in a folder or something?because when you put a forum up you have to chmod files and i know someone who has a forum and he is getting hosted with lycos for free

you may want to ask your friend how to do it if he has been successful. it may be remotely hosted.

from the tripod help pages...

http://www.tripod.lycos.com/build/module_library/tutorial/faq.html

I need to chmod my files to get them to work correctly. How do I do this?
Chmoding your files is another thing you don't need to worry about on Tripod. Our server takes care of changing the permissions on files so that they work correctly. Besides, you wouldn't be able to chmod your files even if you wanted to, because of the way our cgi server works.