Correct Apache var/www permissions - apache

Question

I'm new to writing permissions in Apache. This is a shared sever of which I have one account on it.
I was having an issue with FileZilla not being able to write to my var/www directory and in an attempt to change its permissions I think I have made it worse.
Here are my current settings
$ ls -l
total 40
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb 5 2013 backups
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 Jul 30 2013 cache
drwxr-xr-x 26 root root 4096 Jul 30 2013 lib
drwxrwsr-x 2 root staff 4096 Apr 15 2008 local
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Feb 5 2013 lock -> /run/lock
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 Jul 30 2013 log
drwxrwsr-x 2 root mail 4096 Feb 5 2013 mail
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb 5 2013 opt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 Feb 5 2013 run -> /run
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Feb 5 2013 spool
drwxrwxrwt 2 root root 4096 Feb 5 2013 tmp
drwxrwx--- 2 root root 4096 Jul 30 2013 www
Can anyone tell me what are the correct permissions to have on the www folder, and even better how to obtain them?
I think it should be
drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 4096 Jul 30 2013 www
Thanks

Answer 1

There is no such thing as "correct permissions".
There's the permissions setup which was used as default in your installation.
There's the right permissions to use for YOUR security model
You appear to be using a security model which requires non-standard permissions, And you've not once mentioned 'users' or 'groups' let alone what your security model is.
As root, you should chown /var/www to whoever should 'own' the directory (hint: it's neither root nor the apache uid) then set the group ownership appropriately (we can't tell from the information you've provided what that is - but again it's neither root nor the apache uid) then chmod o_rx the directory.
Then please go learn a bit about Linux/Unix admin - try googling for "the rute"