I'm completely new at this, so bear with me. I installed something that requires permission for the web server to have "permission to write to it and create directories in it". I'm using FileZilla and I'm not sure how the file permissions dialog should be configured. It's currently set like this by default.

To create the directories or to write the file through web user then you will require the 777 permission to your folder or files. There is a chance to hack the site if you assign the 777 permission to the files or folder.

What about all the checkboxes? And should I have it recurse into subdirectories?

You will have to check all the checkboxes and also you will have to select the option Recurse into subdirectories.

Originally Posted by thewebhostingdi

You will have to check all the checkboxes and also you will have to select the option Recurse into subdirectories.

though if you type the number in you won't have to check all the boxes manually

I'll just tell you guys that I'm trying to install Elgg. And it tells me that "setting your data directory to 777 will work, but it is insecure and so not recommended." It says I should enter this:

chgrp www-data /home/elgg/data/ 
chmod 775 /home/elgg/data/

But I'm using FileZilla so I don't think I can use terminal commands.

Yes, If you have an access to the server then you can assign the permission through SSH or you will have to contact your hosting provider to change the permission.

The easiest way is simply writing numeric values into "Numeric Values" field (as displayed in this screenshot).