setting file permissions on a web server

[John Salerno]

Daniel Nogradi wrote:

> In short, chmod refers to local files so wherever you run it it will
> refer to files on that machine. You run it simply by typing it in a
> shell as a user who has privilage to perform the operatation, which
> can mean you have to be an owner of the file but if you are root you
> can do it in any case. Depending on your ftp, scp, http or whatever
> method you use to transfer files the file permissions may or may not
> change during the transfer. If permissions are kept intact you can
> chmod on your local machine and then transfer, if they are not then
> you transfer first and chmod on the server. When you transfer files
> from a windows machine to *nix it again depends on the particular
> method you choose how the permissions will be set.

Thanks, but I'm still a little confused. Since I'm running Windows, I 
assume that I can't run the chmod line on my own computer. My web server 
uses Unix, but is it possible for me to have access to a command line 
for the server? I didn't know that was possible for basic web hosting 
plans (I'm using 1and1 right now).

I suppose I could write a script that would set the permissions of all 
the files in a particular folder on my computer to 755, but is there a 
Windows equivalent command for chmod to do this? Or am I stuck having to 
do it on the server side?