THE Ultimate Htaccess
.htaccess is a very ancient configuration file for web servers, and is one of the most powerful configuration files most webmasters will ever come across. This htaccess guide shows off the very best of the best htaccess tricks and code snippets from hackers and server administrators.
You've come to the right place if you are looking to acquire mad skills for using .htaccess files!
Speed Up Sites with htaccess Caching
2 awesome ways to implement caching on your website using Apache .htaccess or httpd.conf. Both methods are extremely simple to set up and will dramatically speed up your site!HTTP Status Codes
This is a big update from the last time I looked into this, when I enumerated 57 Status Codes that Apache 2.x was capable of handling. This list contains 83 Status Codes recognized by Apache. I compiled the latest 2.4.4 Apache in order to view the actual codes sent by a live server.. very cool. You can read about the newest HTTP Status Codes in RFC 6585.
WordPress .htaccess in-depth
WordPress uses a file named .htaccess to rewrite all requests to the main index.php file. This article explains what the htaccess file rules look like and what they actually do.
Ultimate Htaccess Part II
Here is even more information from the Ultimate Htaccess Part I. For now this is very rough and you will want to come back later to read it.
Htaccess File Sample
Comprehensive .htaccess example file with advanced examples in 1 htaccess sample skeleton .htaccess file with the very best apache htaccess examples... Updated frequently based on detailed info from the Apache htaccess tutorial.
Htaccess Rewrites for Moving Urls
30x Faster Cache and Site Speed with TMPFS
NOT a typo.. 30x is measurable, well-documented, and easily tested. This is what open-source is about. I haven’t had time to post much the past year, I'm always working! So I wanted to make up for that by publishing an article on a topic that would blow your mind and be something that you could actually start using and really get some benefit out of it. This is one of those articles that the majority of web hosting companies would love to see in paperback, so they could burn it.
Security with Apache htaccess Tutorial
Apache Security tips and tricks for securing Apache Web Servers using htaccess, httpd.conf, and other built-in techniques to thwart attackers. This really should be required reading for any Apache admin or user because these little tricks are so easy to do.
Setting charset in htaccess
Learning about charset's and file types maybe pretty boring, but using .htaccess it can be fun! Here's a quicklist htaccess cheatsheet for adding the correct Charset to a web document.
SSI in Htaccess for ErrorDocuments, DirectoryIndexing, SEO

3-Part article covering practical implementation of 3 advanced .htaccess features. Discover an easy way to boost your SEO the AskApache way (focus on visitors), a tip you might keep and use for life. Get some cool security tricks to use against spammers, crackers, and other nefarious sorts. Take your site's error handling to the next level, enhanced ErrorDocuments that go beyond 404's.
3 Ways to Serve PDF Files using Htaccess Cookies, Headers, Rewrites
FYI, using the Mod_Rewrite Variables Cheatsheet makes this example, and all advanced .htaccess code easier to understand. This demo lets you set a cookie with 1 of 3 values, then you just request the pdf file with a normal link click and get 1 of 3 different responses. This is accomplished with a nice bit of .htaccess code.
Set PDF Viewing Mode - Make a selection, then click the view pdf button.
Inline Download Save As View PDF using selected mode »
Fsockopen Magic
PHP's fsockopen function lets you open an Internet or Unix domain socket connection for connecting to a resource, and is one of the most powerful functions available in the php language.
Apache SSL in htaccess examples
SSLOptions +StrictRequire
SSLRequireSSL
SSLRequire %{HTTP_HOST} eq "google.com"
ErrorDocument 403 https://google.com
Some of the Ins and Outs of using SSL Connections with Apache.
Best Practices for Speeding Up Your Web Site with Htaccess
I have written more than a few articles detailing how to improve the speed of a website, and due to popular demand, this post will detail all the latest and greatest caching tricks and techniques that I utilize and love. The AskApache Best-Practices.
SEO with Robots.txt
Very nice tutorial dealing with the robots.txt file. Shows examples for google and other search engines. Wordpress robots.txt and phpBB robots.txt sample files..htaccess – Wikipedia
An AskApache Plugin Upgrade to Rule them All
So my blog as been rather quiet for almost a year now, and very few updates if any have been released for my Password Protection PLugin, my Google 404 Plugin, and definately not for my AskApache CrazyCache plugin, which I will be releasing last... So for all of you who've helped me out by sending me suggestions and notifying me of errors and sticking with it... Just wanted to say sorry about that, and thanks for all the great ideas.. Well, I've been sticking with it as well believe it our not. I manage to get free days once in a while, and then its time to jam.
Custom PHP.ini tips and tricks
- When php run as Apache Module (mod_php)
- When php run as CGI
- When cgi?d php is run with wrapper (for FastCGI)
Apache Variable Fun in htaccess
Server and Environment Variables are used by The Apache HTTP Server by provides a mechanism for storing information. This information can be used to control various operations such as logging or access control.
Htaccess Mod_Rewrite – Crazy Advanced Master Class
htaccess rewrite Master Class! If you understand the basics of mod_rewrite, or if you literally write the mod_rewite.c code, this article will transform your thinking. The transformation is profound. Deeply effective. Culmination of the best of the best mod_rewrite tricks for understanding and learning exactly what rewrite is doing.
Troubleshooting Apache .htaccess Authentication
Apache Web Server users have problems getting Apache Authentication/password-protection in htaccess working, this is a troubleshooting guide to get Password Protection working!
Control htaccess Basic Authentication with PHP and mod_rewrite
Control htaccess Basic Authentication with PHP and mod_rewriteApache Directives and Modules on DreamHost
Apache .htaccess Directives and Loaded Modules allowed on DreamHost Apache Server 2 Setups.
Mod_Security .htaccess tricks
Mod_Security rivals Mod_Rewrite in the amount of features it provides. I decided to go ahead and post what I learned about it today, even though its tough to give away such awesome htaccess and apache tricks.. Learn how to control spam once and for all, conditionally log/deny/allow/redirect requests based on IP, username, etc.. Mod_Security is so fine!
FastCGI on DreamHost
Using FastCGI on DreamHost and .htaccess
Htaccess Mod_Rewrite – Guidedddd
.htaccess trick to show Alternate CSS file based on IP
This past week I updated my sites apache.css file for a site-redesign. I wanted to make changes to the .css file that only I could see, so that my regular traffic and site-visitors would still see the old version. Here's the elegant solution I came up with using .htaccess and mod_rewrite that works so well I'm sharing it with all you wonderful and incredible people reading my blog :)
.htaccess Plugin Blocks Spam, Hackers, and Password Protects Blog

Well what can I say, other than this is sooo DOPE! Here is a list of the modules this plugin (version 4.7 unreleased) will automatically detect. I compiled the list myself using every module included with any default Apache installation for ALL the versions listed below, 1.3 to 2.2+
Want to know something else I'm including in this plugin? For each and every module that is detected, this plugin can then detect ALL of the modules .htaccess Directives! For instance, RewriteRule, AccessFileName, AddHandler, etc.. are each a directive belonging to a module that is allowed to be used from within .htaccess files.
Talk about sick.. these tricks have the diamond disease!
Caching Tutorial for Webmasters
If you examine the preferences dialog of any modern Web browser (like Internet Explorer, Safari or Mozilla), you'll probably notice a 'cache' setting. This lets you set aside a section of your computer's hard disk to store representations that you've seen, just for you. The browser cache works according to fairly simple rules. It will check to make sure that the representations are fresh, usually once a session (that is, the once in the current invocation of the browser).
htaccess Tricks for Webmasters
Some of my favorite htaccess examples from some of my favorite .htaccess tutorials. These cut-and-paste ready htaccess code snippets are very useful for website and server administrators.
Advanced .htaccess Tricks for Securing Sites
This is all new, experimental, and very very cool. It literally uses .htaccess techniques to create several virtual "locked gates" that require a specific key to unlock, in a specific order that cannot be bypassed. It uses whitelisting .htaccess tricks to specify exactly what is allowed, instead of trying to specify everything that isn't allowed. Also, by setting specific cookies/tokens after successfully passing through a gate, we can then require the exact cookie/token from the previous gate, which stops an attacker from skipping or bypassing gates.
Preload flash .flv files into browser cache
How I was able to preload many flash flv and swf files on one of my clients sites that has a lot of online video and relatively small traffic. Their site visitors would usually watch 3-10 videos per visit and so to make the videos load almost instantly on every page I came up with a way to preload the top 10 .flv files and the swf flv player files as soon as the visitor successfully started watching the 1st video. Of course I also setup .htaccess caching on the server so that once they downloaded the files into their cache they would never request them from the server again. I was having fun with this so its pretty funky and uses some really cool combinations of javascript, swf preloader from xml, css classes to help automate it all..
.htaccess mod_rewrite rewrite examples
A hit-list of some of my favorite mod_rewrite code snippets for .htaccess files
Apache Web Server Speed Configuration Hacks
Apache server performance can be improved by adding additional hardware resources such as RAM, faster CPU, etc.Blocking Bad Bots and Scrapers with .htaccess
Want to block a bad robot or web scraper using .htaccess files? Here are 2 methods that illustrate blocking 436 various user-agents.
301 Redirect Cheatsheet
Ultimate Redirect Cheatsheet for multiple programming languages. Redirecting Users with Javascript redirect, meta refresh redirect, and php redirect, also htaccess methods, python, coldfusion, asp, perl, etc.
SEO Secrets of AskApache Part 2
This is part II of the Advanced SEO used on AskApache.com Series and describes how to control which urls are indexed by Search Engines and how to move them higher up in Search Results.
mod_rewrite Fix for Caching Updated Files
Web Developers sometimes use file.ext?v=004 as a version control system to force visitors to use updated files. This is terrible. Instead link to apache-003.css and set it to be cached forever. When you change the file you just change the links to apache-004.css. That eliminates millions of bandwidth and resource robbing If-Modified-Since requests. You only need Apache with mod_rewrite, and 1-10 minutes!