Discover htaccess - not only hotlinking protection.

There are many tutorials and guides how to configure htaccess. I think that the best way to handle it is to learn it and understand it. Its always better when you know what you do than follow blindly some guide that does not work when you change parameters a little bit or need to add something extra. I hope this list of links will help you understand it.

What is htaccess?
Official Apache webserver site says: .htaccess files (or "distributed configuration files") provide a way to make configuration changes on a per-directory basis. A file, containing one or more configuration directives, is placed in a particular document directory, and the directives apply to that directory, and all subdirectories thereof.

What is .htaccess, where to use it and where not - http://httpd.apache.org/docs/howto/htaccess.html (Official Apache Howto)

What can htaccess do?
Freewebmasterhelp tutorial about usability of htaccess: There is a huge range of things .htaccess can do including: password protecting folders, redirecting users automatically, custom error pages, changing your file extensions, banning users with certian IP addresses, only allowing users with certain IP addresses, stopping directory listings and using a different file as the index file.

Basically this means, that you can do anything that has something to do with file permissions and handling on directory level.

Freewebmasterhelp's tutorial on .htaccess - http://www.freewebmasterhelp.com/tutorials/htaccess/

Oh yes, give me my .htaccess!
There are several tools to generate .htaccess files. My favourite is semiautomatic generator by EyeCreate that lets you inlclude .htacess config lines.

.htaccess generator by Eye Create - http://www.eye-create.com/htaccess.html

I want more!
Okay.... here are some more links for you!
Tutorial - http://apache-server.com/tutorials/...g-htaccess.html
.htaccess commands - http://www.freewebmasterhelp.com/tutorials/htaccess/2
Password protection - http://www.freewebmasterhelp.com/tutorials/htaccess/3
Htaccess generator (with source code) - http://www.bitesizeinc.net/demo.htaccesser.html
Very useful .htaccess file for adult webmasters - http://www.netpond.com/showthread.p...id=4630&t=50881

This small configuration file can save you lot of time and bandwidth from hotlinkers, but as you can see, there is much more potential in it!

This small list of links can be found on WebmasterTips.net - Discover .htaccess