hi ghia,

you are correct; i don't know what i'm doing ... which is why i need help. but i did learn in web design 101 that when you look at 'view' [between edit & history] on the top bar next to bookmarks ... & scroll down to 'view source,' you can see the index or code of whatever website you're looking at. that's where i can see the difference between both sites & see what's missing on the site where i deleted permissions from 'your account' -- where i controlled banners, blocks, modules & everything ... without having to log into the hosting c-panel files. i changed permissions from groups, then webmaster & accidently deleted admin permissions. now i'm looking for a way to restore admin permissions without having to completely reinstall a whole new site.
i've looked through almost every folder in the c-panel database & can't find group_permissions or some logical place where it makes sense to cut & paste or hand code this back in. thanks for your reply