file permissions

IN my CGI bin i have the following structure,

CGI-Bin/
level one/
level two/
level 3/

i can set the file permissions for files in levels 1 and 2 but when i try and do the same in level 3 i get an error message saying error code 3 permission denied. (Hope this makes sense)

how do i change the permissions settings on these files/what am i doing wrong?

The permissions are enforced by the server, so without knowing what server/platform you connect to, it is hard to answer. Generally you may not be possible to change permissions of the file in directory, if you are not owner of that directory or the files.