Over on the Wise-Women website you’ll now find Tutorial: Using the .htaccess File, collated by Miraz Jordan from various tips mentioned on the Wisewomen mailing list, and from several other sources.
Web designers often ask how to handle redirects or to password protect directories. The .htaccess file can do these things and more. For this article Miraz Jordan has collated various tips mentioned on the Wisewomen mailing list, and from several other sources.
It also contains links to other definitive sources of information.