htaccess ... its impact on security

[oMama]

Can someone please explain to me the purpose of the htaccess file, in general terms?  I have read about directives, and have been trying to learn about securing my $ambo site - and I keep seeing reference to altering the name of this file for security.

Clearly, I am a newbie, but I am trying to understand.   I get very confused when trying to get my head around the dependencies of the main core files with others files, and also how certain files affect the security of my site.  I have read through  a file written by Jascha called "Securing $amboOpen Source CMS v 0.4" and feel pretty overwhelmed by it all.

I realize this is a huge question... but if anyone feels like chiming in, I would be grateful for some enlightenment on this topic.

Thank you.

[FrankZoid]

First I would read this http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/howto/htaccess.html. And a reference to securing .htaccess can be found at http://javascriptkit.com/howto/htaccess8.shtml.

[oMama]

Thank you Frank,
Both of these documents are especially useful, and I feel they are a terrific place for someone like me to begin learning about all of this.  Thanks!!    I have read through them both and want to read again before I start asking questions...  stay tuned!

[georgieporgie]

Hi,

You can use .htaccess files to apply various conditions to your directories.

One function is basic server authentication, where te .htaccess file controls who has access to the contents of the directory it resides in.

The other thing you can do wit .htaccess files is change some of the settings (apache, php, etc) for the given directory that the .htaccess resides in.
For instance if you wanted to do a redirect of http://www.yourserver.com/index.html to forward users to http://www.yourserver.com/somefolder/index.html you coul easily do that with an .htaccess file.

Cheers
George

[syabend]

oMama,

i've published a sort pdf tutorial on my site http://www.alabay.nl
look at the download section to download this file.