Enable htaccess on Apache

htaccess, also known as hypertext access file available to apache web server and several other known web server software allows us to change configurations on servers per directory or subdirectory in a decentralized manner. that way we could easily change server configurations per user account without the need to change the actual server config itself. this could save time having to call the techs just to redirect one file to another directory. htaccess can be very helpful especially if you do not have any access to the server configurations however, it can cause some serious performance issues too as it is loaded every time a page is requested in the same directory it resides.

we may enable htaccess by editing our httpd.conf removing the comment on line from
;LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

to
LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

we need to change the AllowOverride directive also from
<Directory />
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Satisfy all
</Directory>

to
<Directory />
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Satisfy all
</Directory>

You can also rename your .htaccess file by adding the line below on you httpd.conf file
AccessFileName [filename]

example: AccessFileName .configuration