From my first day of web application development the .htaccess file has been my favourite quick and dirty file. It’s a perfect tool to get the job done when you don’t have write access or any permissions to the servers main config files. Over the next few weeks I am going to post everything I have come across in regards to using the .htaccess file; from security issues, redirecting traffic, the rewrite engine and helpful PHP commands.

Let’s start from the basics. The .htaccess file is a simple ASCII formatted file allowing you to create and edit it in a basic text editor like SimpleText or NotePad. The file can only be used on UNIX systems and not on Windows NT. Though not all 3rd party hosting servers are setup to use .htaccess files, some disable .htaccess all together and some only disable certain commands.

Read the rest of this entry »