If you’re new to Apache web server administration, you should check out this article on .htaccess tricks and tips. This is a terrific article–it starts off at the very beginning of what you need to know about .htaccess, i.e. ‘.htaccess files are invisible’.
The article assumes no prior knowledge whatsoever and covers .htaccess enabling, access control, custom error documents, password protected directories, 500 errors, enhanced security, custom directory index files, how .htaccess can help you save bandwidth, hide and deny files, and a whole lot more as they say. Really this two-part article is about as comprehensive as it gets with regard to .htaccess, and since the author touches on just about every aspect of it you have a great starting point before you go deeper via other sources.
