Enabling MOD_REWRITE or HTACCESS on AppServ

On this occasion we will learn how to enable MOD_REWRITE or another language we can call HTACCESS. However, before going to the core of the discussion, a little describes what is this HTACCESS? Then how to activate it?

HTACCESS is a simple text file in ASCII format. In general, we can use the htaccess file to change some configurations to redirect to the apache web server. HTACCESS files can be placed anywhere on the website folder that we build. Why HTACCESS? Because with HTACCESS we can:

• Prevent hot-linking of images from the website
• Changes the default index page to a specific folder
• Prevent visitors from opening our website directory
• Redirect visitors from a page to another page
• Creating error message page
• Provide password protection against directories
• and many more.

To use HTACCESS, make sure the configuration against HTACCESS on apache is enabled. However, if not active we can activate itself. On this occasion, we will review enable HTACCESS on AppServ. So make sure all friends use AppServ software as their master database.

How to enable HTACCESS on AppServ? Complete the following steps:

First, make sure the apache service is off or not running. If still running, turn it off by:

Go to Start -> Control Panel -> System and Security -> Administrative Tools -> Service until Service window appears.

Find the Apache2.2 service name, right click and then select Stop like the picture above, or Select Apache2.2 then press Stop button to the left of service list like the following picture:

Then, open the httpd.conf file located in the C -> AppServ -> Apache2.2 -> Conf folder using notepad.

The location of the httpd.conf file depends when we install AppServ, so it can be different. But for the default location is in C: \ AppServ \ Apache2.2 \ Conf.

Next, find the #LoadModule rewrite_module and then remove the #

Then, look for the Options FollowSymLinks ExecCGI Indexes then change the None to All on the line below.

Next, save the above changes and rerun the Apache2.2 service.

Now, htaccess is active and ready to use. Still confused? Please leave your comment.