I started creating some content earlier today to see what Zymic could offer. As I'd used Drupal previously I created a area for the squash club site that I run, and all seemed well for a while (great in fact). Now however, though I can see the files and folders still exist using File Manager or FileZilla, I always get a 404 error. I thought as long as there was a file called index.* at that URL this would load by default.

Furthermore, if I explicitly list the file, if it's an html file it works correctly (e.g. http://www.camberleysquash.zxq.net/index.html) but php files don't - my PC always asks me what local app it should use to read the file (e.g. http://www.camberleysquash.zxq.net/drupal/index.php).

If this was my server I guess I'd try to check the Apache configuration file (httpd.conf) and check / add the line "AddType application/x-httpd-php .php" but as I have no access to Zymic's...

Your script or .htaccess is affecting this, try checking through your .htaccess, comment out lines until the issue disappears. I don't understand what the SetHandler in the first .htaccess is doing, so that would be a good place to start.

My .htaccess file is (was) as follows:

SetHandler Drupal_Security_Do_Not_Remove_See_SA_2006_006
#Options None
#Options +FollowSymLinks

but I couldn't edit it - even though user and group both had r+w permission. Instead I deleted it and replaced it with one containing the additional line "AddType application/x-httpd-php .php" included - this still didn't work.

Now I've deleted the .htaccess file to prevent (I think) any unwanted side-effects, but URLs to a php file still causes me to be invited to open the .php using a local app instead of being processed server-side.

I'm confused!

maybe some mime type needs to be installed?