> There is a consortium called W3C which deals specifically with HTML and > XML standards, and they offer some tools to check code, as well as > guides to the uses and syntax. I think you will find your answer there. This question has nothing to do with XML, or web site validating. htaccess file management is all part of the apache web server so the best place to look is apache.org (or the apacheweek articles). Make sure the .htaccess itself is readable by the web server uid, and also that you've got the right things turned on in the configuration file. Its normally considered bad practice to rely on .htaccess to hide stuff rather than putting it in other directories where accidents are less likely to occur. Alan