web server and permissions

Please B/CC me, thank you. I am on a site that has all the files in both the /home/sitename/www/ directory and a directory we'll call /home/directory/includes/ with the following permisssions: rwxr-x--r The group I have in /etc/group does not have anyone in it, including me. The server reads everything fine and the php engine can include fine from the /home/sitename/includes/ directory. The problem is, everyone else on the site can read the includes directory as well, including my database password file which get's included. What I would like to set up is: [1] the apache/php engine can include from the includes directory, but not just spit it out. I think that is taken care of by the .htaccess file already. [2] the apache/php process is in my group, and everything I want to go out has the group permissions set to rwx--r--- (do php/html/inc files also have to be executable to be serverd?) [3] 'everyone' does not have the ability to read my files on myserver. Is this the way to do it? What is the normal way permission are set up for users/apache/groups/everyone?