Error! Could not find a Joomla XML setup file for any plugin

[gsnolte]

All,

Running WampServer
Apache: 2.2.17
PHP: 5.2.11
MySQL: 5.1.41
Joomla: 1.6

I am having an interesting issue trying to install a plugin....any plugin. I have tried to install 4 different plugins from their zip files and I receive the same error of all of them:
"Error! Could not find a Joomla! XML setup file in the package."

When I unzip them into a directory and install from there I get:
"Error! Could not find a Joomla! XML setup file in the package."
"Path does not have a valid package."

I search for an answer and tried several suggestions such as from http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?t=271287 but nothing has worked.

In the above link there is a suggestion regarding php6: "LoadModule php6_module libexec/libphp6.so" but I did not find a module for the WampServer.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

GSN

[gsnolte]

Additional information: I can install a module without a problem. The same problem exist when I put the site on Dreamhost, but the following warnings appeared:
=======
Warning: opendir(/tmp/passenger.2160) [function.opendir]: failed to open dir: Permission denied in /home/accountid/tj.orangeloon.org/libraries/joomla/filesystem/folder.php on line 423

Warning: readdir(): supplied argument is not a valid Directory resource in /home/accountid/tj.orangeloon.org/libraries/joomla/filesystem/folder.php on line 424

Warning: closedir(): supplied argument is not a valid Directory resource in /home/accountid/tj.orangeloon.org/libraries/joomla/filesystem/folder.php on line 450
=======

Regards

GSN