Note: Applies to Linux hosting accounts only.
Create an empty text file using a text editor such as notepad, and save it as htaccess.txt.
The reason you should save the file as htaccess.txt is because many operating systems and FTP applications are unable to read or view .htaccess files by default. Once uploaded to the server you can rename the file to .htaccess.
Edit the contents of the file. Check the following examples:
Point an entire site to a different URL, such as domain.net redirected to domain.com:
# This allows you to redirect your entire website to any other domain
Redirect 301 / http://example.com/
Redirect index.html to a specific subfolder:
# This allows you to redirect index.html to a specific subfolder
Redirect /index.html http://example.com/newdirectory/
Redirect an old file to a new file path:
# Redirect old file path to new file path
Redirect /olddirectory/oldfile.html http://example.com/newdirectory/newfile.html
Redirect to a specific index page:
# Provide Specific Index Page (Set the default handler)
DirectoryIndex index.html