What is a .htaccess File

[ddave]

I have heard of this file but have no idea what are the uses for it. I don't even know how this file is created and whenever I ftp a .htaccess from the server to my computer, I can never view it's content.

Maybe someone can give me a brief description.

[LinkBuildingBible]

1) You can create one in Notepad... it is easy, when you go to save, save it as .htaccess and the file type: "Any" (instead of file type "Text Document".

2) You can open the .htaccess file in notepad. Just right click it on your computer, and go to "open with..." and choose Notepad... and you can see the file.

3) The can be really simple or really complex. They are mostly used for redirection. Currently I have one of my niche sites setup to forward my http://www.nichesiteurl.com to nichesiteurl.com in order to avoid duplicate content. You can also set it up to go from the non-www to the www. version.

Using a google search for .htaccess, i found the following site:
http://www.javascriptkit.com/howto/htaccess.shtml

Hope this has helped!

[BuckBuck]

Basically this is a file used by Apache. Its main purpose is to provides instructions for different directories of your website. You can take a look at this article. Nothig too common. Where did you find such file? If it is on your server to touch it. Otherwise your risking messing things up. Good luck.