My server ignores the .htaccess file
This generally happens when your web server does not have access to make the overrides to your webroot.

Check if your httpd.conf file has something of the following format

&lt;Directory "/Applications/MAMP/htdocs"&gt;
    #
    # AllowOverride controls what directives may be placed in .htaccess files.
    # It can be "All", "None", or any combination of the keywords:
    #   Options FileInfo AuthConfig Limit
    #
    AllowOverride All

    #
    # Controls who can get stuff from this server.
    #
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all

&lt;/Directory&gt;


The important piece above is AllowOverride All, which will make possible for your .htaccess file to override the settings.

If you cannot change the settings in this file, I would recommend you to create a .conf file specific to your site (e.g. mysite.conf using the default file 000-default) in on of /etc/apache2/sites-enabled or /etc/apache2/sites-available, and modify the &lt;Directory&gt; tag to point to the root of your site.

Restart Apache in order to make this change visible. The site should now be able to pick up your .htaccess file.