[plugin:visitor maps and who's online] Permission denied

I love this plugin and it’s working perfectly on my site. The only problem is the GeoLiteCity.dat backup function.

I had trouble in installing the plugin automatically, So I downloaded and uploaded it manually while set permission to 777 on wp-content/ and wp-content/plugins

Now, while the plugin is working fine, whenever I install any other plugin, an error message will show “mkdir()[function.mkdir]Permission denied in …./visitor-maps.php on line 1491”

Line 1491 is a function to backup GeoLiteCity to avoid this file being removed when updating.

if I change all permission to 777 (wp-content/, wp-content/plugins,GeoListCity.dat), It gives an erro message of “chmod() [function.chmod]: Operation not permitted in …./visitor-maps.php on line 1504”

Line 1504 is the function to change the GeoLiteCity.dat back to default permission after backup. So, I go to change the permission back manually.

After I finish any new plugin installing, I change all permissions back to default. Then, next time when need to install a new plugin, still have to go through the changing permission process to avoid seeing the visitor maps error message.

I checked my php settings, safe_mode = Off, allow_url_fopen = On

I read through the forum, I see people’s posts are mostly about first time installation on the GeoLitleCity, can’t find similiar problem or solution to mine.

Please help!