Something is worng with the index.php page

[D-Train]

The installation went fine, as it should've gone.  When I visited the index.php page the page was filled with weird characters. And after I finished installation, there was a notice that my installation directory was still writable to and that I should change the permissions. Which directory is it talking about? 

[dtm.exe]

I'm afraid I don't really understand what you're saying.  Maybe you could post a screenshot?

[Oldiesmann]

I'm not sure why index.php would be filled with "weird characters" unless something didn't get uploaded properly. Try re-uploading index.php, Themes/default/index.template.php and Themes/default/BoardIndex.template.php.

The notice about your installation directory being writeable is due to your host having PHP setup in some "ultra-safe" CGI mode, meaning that you can't make directories and such "world-writable". CHMod SMF's directory to 755 (rwxr-xr-x) and see if that gets rid of the error.

[dtm.exe]

D-Train, does your host have PHP installed?