Hey,
This was annoying, luckily an easy fix. After a fresh install of WordPress, which is awesome, I was unable to install plugins or themes from the dashboard. Essentially, I could browse for new plugins and themes, I could choose them and attempt an install. However the actual download would stall.
There’s a very simple fix for this which involves something called a .htaccess file. This is a file that your Apache web server uses to apply configuration settings and options on a directory basis. Having this file in a directory on your web server changes the way Apache applies it’s rules in that location. Anyway, back to the problem…
Look in your top level WordPress directory on your web server with your FTP client. My directory is /blog. You are looking for a file called .htaccess. If it’s there you need to download it to a working area on your computer, if not you need to make a new text file on your computer, call it anything for now.
- Add the following lines to the file, this needs to be outside and WordPress section if you have copied a file from your web server (don’t worry if you didn’t have one, that’s just fine as well)
AddType x-mapp-php5 .php
AddHandler x-mapp-php5 .php- Save the file with this line in it.
- Upload this file to your WordPress directory on your web server.
- Rename the file on your webserver to .htaccess if it isn’t called that.
Everything should now be working 
