I have seen several threads on this subject but I don't think any pertain to me in the same sense. Once again I could be wrong.

I created a notepad file called htaccess put it in the root directory and renamed it without the .txt extension.

I was just testing for a one page rename (I need to rename many [many]) with the 301 direct as follows:

redirect 301 /glossary.html http://www.pcvirusdoctors.com/computer- … terms.html

there is a space before the http://

I called up the pcvirusdoctors.com/glossary.html and sure enough it pulled up without the redirect.

The server is linux (godaddy if that means anything). I don't see any controls on the server like I have previously read about in some tutorials and the like. I'm lost.

thegreatyo wrote:

I created a notepad file called htaccess put it in the root directory and renamed it without the .txt extension.

could be the problem: htaccess is the extension, so the file name should be

.htaccess

note the leading dot .

forgetting the leading dot is very common....I forgot it at first and it took me 2 weeks before I figured out what was wrong.

What does .htaccess file?What is the mission of it?

Simply put, it instructs your server how to respond and what to do with a file request. This gives you control of many functions such as redirects, blocking certain I.P. addresses and much more. Should be used with caution though it is actually a very powerful command if used improperly it can bring down a server.
There is much information on the web about this. Do a search for .htaccess functions or 301 redirect.
Hope this helps.
Dan

sis651 wrote:

What does .htaccess file?What is the mission of it?

.htaccess is the unix-apache configuration file for accessing hyper text documents (your website)

you will not find .htaccess on IIS or Windows

actually htaccess is not the "extension" - file extensions are windows thingies - Unix hasn't a use for them.  a . in a filename is the same as any other character, except for the case where its the first character in the filename, or for the filenames . or  ..

Yeah, I did not have the "." dot in front of htaccess so I changed it to .htaccess to no avail. No redirect. I knew I would be frustrated with my ignorance and have delayed these tasks too long.

Thanks.I read about .htaccess files in http://www.wsabstract.com/howto/htaccess.shtml