Quote Originally Posted by DrByte View Post
If they won't let you use the protections in the .htaccess files, then you may as well delete the .htaccess files, since they're useless to you. But, that means you leave yourself open to fraudsters and hackers. Even as just a test/demo site.

Better to use a host that supports contemporary security capability for your advanced ecommerce site.

But that still doesn't explain why the installer isn't able to write the configure.php file updates properly. But, it might be an indicator that there are other incompatibilities between your hosting company and the advanced capabilities of the Zen Cart code.
Thats a shame, I deleted the .htaccess files and wala everything works. I still have time to cancel the current hosts package so will have to move host to someone who does support it. Lack of security is just going to come back and bite me!

But atleast the problem is identified, thanks very much for your help!