Furthermore, I have no-one left to ask.

Either you're the webmaster, or someone is. If that someone is, please ask them.

If it's you, then you have full control over the webserver, and renaming files should be the last resort.

Instead, add XBitHack On to your top-level configuration file. That should work fine. If it doesn't, see the tutorial on SSI at the Apache site. Make sure you have the Include options enabled.

There is no need to rename the file. It ruins bookmarks to your site, internal references, and is a waste of everyone's time.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker