forgive the ignorance... I have searched through the forum and all though there is great info, especially Tricky Kid, I just cant make sense out of my httpd.conf file. It does not jive with what I am finding out here when it comes to setting what file types are allowed and where to configure the default file type to be in my cgi-bin dir and have it be called index.pl.

I am submitting my conf file, it is a hand me down from a previous admin, since long gone. Thanks

(Trimmed off the top of the file to allow submission)

# If you would like to have an agent and referer logfile uncomment the
# following directives.

# CustomLog logs/referer_log referer
# CustomLog logs/agent_log agent

# If you prefer a single logfile with access, agent and referer information
# (Combined Logfile Format) you can use the following directive.

# CustomLog logs/access_log combined

# PidFile: The file the server should log its pid to
PidFile /var/run/httpd.pid

# CacheNegotiatedDocs: By default, Apache sends Pragma: no-cache with each
# document that was negotiated on the basis of content. This asks proxy
# servers not to cache the document. Uncommenting the following line disables
# this behavior, and proxies will be allowed to cache the documents.

# CacheNegotiatedDocs

# Timeout: The number of seconds before receives and sends time out

Timeout 300

# ScoreBoardFile: File used to store internal server process information.
# Not all architectures require this. But if yours does (you'll know because
# this file is created when you run Apache) then you *must* ensure that
# no two invocations of Apache share the same scoreboard file.
ScoreBoardFile /var/run/httpd.scoreboard

# ServerRoot: The directory the server's config, error, and log files
# are kept in.
# NOTE! If you intend to place this on a NFS (or otherwise network)
# mounted filesystem then please read the LockFile documentation,
# you will save yourself a lot of trouble.

ServerRoot /etc/httpd

# HostnameLookups: Log the names of clients or just their IP numbers
# e.g. www.apache.org (on) or 204.62.129.132 (off)
# The default is off because it'd be overall better for the net if people
# had to knowingly turn this feature on.

HostnameLookups off

# Dynamic Shared Object (DSO) Support

# To be able to use the functionality of a module which was built as a DSO you
# have to place corresponding `LoadModule' lines at this location so the
# directives contained in it are actually available _before_ they are used.
# Please read the file README.DSO in the Apache 1.3 distribution for more
# details about the DSO mechanism and run `httpd -l' for the list of already
# built-in (statically linked and thus always available) modules in your httpd
# binary.

# Example:
# LoadModule foo_module libexec/mod_foo.so

# Documentation for modules is in "/home/httpd/manual/mod" in HTML format.

# LoadModule mmap_static_module modules/mod_mmap_static.so
LoadModule env_module modules/mod_env.so
LoadModule config_log_module modules/mod_log_config.so
LoadModule agent_log_module modules/mod_log_agent.so
LoadModule referer_log_module modules/mod_log_referer.so
# LoadModule mime_magic_module modules/mod_mime_magic.so
LoadModule mime_module modules/mod_mime.so
LoadModule negotiation_module modules/mod_negotiation.so
LoadModule status_module modules/mod_status.so
LoadModule info_module modules/mod_info.so
LoadModule includes_module modules/mod_include.so
LoadModule autoindex_module modules/mod_autoindex.so
LoadModule dir_module modules/mod_dir.so
LoadModule cgi_module modules/mod_cgi.so
LoadModule asis_module modules/mod_asis.so
LoadModule imap_module modules/mod_imap.so
LoadModule action_module modules/mod_actions.so
# LoadModule speling_module modules/mod_speling.so
LoadModule userdir_module modules/mod_userdir.so
LoadModule proxy_module modules/libproxy.so
LoadModule alias_module modules/mod_alias.so
LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
LoadModule access_module modules/mod_access.so
LoadModule auth_module modules/mod_auth.so
LoadModule anon_auth_module modules/mod_auth_anon.so
# LoadModule dbm_auth_module modules/mod_auth_dbm.so
LoadModule db_auth_module modules/mod_auth_db.so
LoadModule digest_module modules/mod_digest.so
# LoadModule cern_meta_module modules/mod_cern_meta.so
LoadModule expires_module modules/mod_expires.so
LoadModule headers_module modules/mod_headers.so
LoadModule usertrack_module modules/mod_usertrack.so
# LoadModule example_module modules/mod_example.so
# LoadModule unique_id_module modules/mod_unique_id.so
LoadModule setenvif_module modules/mod_setenvif.so
ClearModuleList

# Extra Modules
# LoadModule php_module modules/mod_php.so
# LoadModule php3_module modules/libphp3.so
# LoadModule perl_module modules/libperl.so

# Reconstruction of the complete module list from all available modules
# (static and shared ones) to achieve correct module execution order.
# [WHENEVER YOU CHANGE THE LOADMODULE SECTION ABOVE UPDATE THIS, TOO]
# AddModule mod_mmap_static.c
AddModule mod_env.c
AddModule mod_log_config.c
AddModule mod_log_agent.c
AddModule mod_log_referer.c
# AddModule mod_mime_magic.c
AddModule mod_mime.c
AddModule mod_negotiation.c
AddModule mod_status.c
AddModule mod_info.c
AddModule mod_include.c
AddModule mod_autoindex.c
AddModule mod_dir.c
AddModule mod_cgi.c
AddModule mod_asis.c
AddModule mod_imap.c
AddModule mod_actions.c
# AddModule mod_speling.c
AddModule mod_userdir.c
AddModule mod_proxy.c
AddModule mod_alias.c
AddModule mod_rewrite.c
AddModule mod_access.c
AddModule mod_auth.c
AddModule mod_auth_anon.c
# AddModule mod_auth_dbm.c
AddModule mod_auth_db.c
AddModule mod_digest.c
# AddModule mod_cern_meta.c
AddModule mod_expires.c
AddModule mod_headers.c
AddModule mod_usertrack.c
# AddModule mod_example.c
# AddModule mod_unique_id.c
AddModule mod_so.c
AddModule mod_setenvif.c

# ServerAdmin: Your address, where problems with the server should be
# e-mailed.

ServerAdmin root@localhost
ServerName imacs_file_1
DocumentRoot /usr/local/samba/home/httpd/html

# BindAddress: You can support virtual hosts with this option. This option
# is used to tell the server which IP address to listen to. It can either
# contain "*", an IP address, or a fully qualified Internet domain name.
# See also the VirtualHost directive.

# BindAddress *

# ErrorLog: The location of the error log file. If this does not start
# with /, ServerRoot is prepended to it.

ErrorLog logs/error_log

# If you wish httpd to run as a different user or group, you must run
# httpd as root initially and it will switch.

# User/Group: The name (or #number) of the user/group to run httpd as.
# On SCO (ODT 3) use User nouser and Group nogroup
# On HPUX you may not be able to use shared memory as nobody, and the
# suggested workaround is to create a user www and use that user.
# NOTE that some kernels refuse to setgid(Group) or semctl(IPC_SET)
# when the value of (unsigned)Group is above 60000;
# don't use Group nobody on these systems!

User www
Group users
Options FollowSymlinks

# LogLevel: Control the number of messages logged to the error_log.
# Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
# alert, emerg.

LogLevel warn

# Extra Modules
# AddModule mod_php.c
# AddModule mod_php3.c
# AddModule mod_perl.c


# The following directives define some format nicknames for use with
# a CustomLog directive (see below).

LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined
LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b" common
LogFormat "%{Referer}i -> %U" referer
LogFormat "%{User-agent}i" agent

# The location of the access logfile (Common Logfile Format).
# If this does not start with /, ServerRoot is prepended to it.

CustomLog logs/access_log common

# The LockFile directive sets the path to the lockfile used when Apache
# is compiled with either USE_FCNTL_SERIALIZED_ACCEPT or
# USE_FLOCK_SERIALIZED_ACCEPT. This directive should normally be left at
# its default value. The main reason for changing it is if the logs
# directory is NFS mounted, since the lockfile MUST BE STORED ON A LOCAL
# DISK. The PID of the main server process is automatically appended to
# the filename.

# LockFile /var/lock/httpd.lock

# ServerName allows you to set a host name which is sent back to clients for
# your server if it's different than the one the program would get (i.e. use
# "www" instead of the host's real name).

# Note: You cannot just invent host names and hope they work. The name you
# define here must be a valid DNS name for your host. If you don't understand
# this, ask your network administrator.

# ServerName new.host.name

# UseCanonicalName: (new for 1.3) With this setting turned on, whenever
# Apache needs to construct a self-referencing URL (a url that refers back
# to the server the response is coming from) it will use ServerName and
# Port to form a "canonical" name. With this setting off, Apache will
# use the hostnameort that the client supplied, when possible. This
# also affects SERVER_NAME and SERVER_PORT in CGIs.
UseCanonicalName on

Try using apacheconf

it has the the gui where you edit or create a virtual host, in the properties select Site Configuration and set the Directory Page Search List with the file types you want.

it is in the httpd.conf file like this

DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm index.shtml

Add the following to your httpd.conf: