[RedHat 9] Permissions error (non-root writing ability)

I've been using Linux for a couple of months and I thought I had all the permissions stuff learned pretty good but I guess not. For some reason, if I use chmod on a file (i.e. chmod 777 index.html) under root and set all the permissions properly I cannot write to the file with a username outside of root. I want to simply allow another user (i.e. user1) to modify his own files. Simple, right? For some reason it does not work for me

Even if I chown -R user1.group1 /files/* to a user and limit the chmod properties to that one user (disable group and world read, write, and execute privileges) that particular user still cannot write to the file! However, root can do everything it wants.

So, if anyone can help me figure out why I cannot get permission to write for other users I would really really appreciate it! Thanks for any and all help.

From my console:

[test2@pjbtest htdocs]$ su root
Password:
bash-2.05b# chown test2.ftp-user index.html.se
bash-2.05b# chmod 775 index.html.se
bash-2.05b# su test2
[test2@pjbtest htdocs]$ ls -l index.html.se
-rwxrwxr-x 1 test2 ftp-user 1700 Jun 28 2001 index.html.se
[test2@pjbtest htdocs]$ rm index.html.se
rm: cannot remove `index.html.se': Permission denied
[test2@pjbtest htdocs]$

The commands are being run remotely through ssh.

Hah, duh!

Forgot to change the privileges of the directory itself!

I'm all good now