file permissions problem

[Richard Kimber <rkimber@ntlworld.com>]

I have two accounts on my machine (which is a simple home machine that no
one else uses, except for my wife logging in to retrieve her email).

I have set the permissions on one of the accounts to rwx--x--x (because my
local apache needs execute permission to access files in this account, as
I understand it).

However, periodically something resets the permissions to rwx --- --- and
I cannot access the local web pages.  Sometimes this happens within a few
minutes of my setting the permissions.

What do I need to do to make my file permissions permanent? And what is it
that makes the changes?

Thanks,

- Richard