htaccess file

Sorry - I don't think this is the right place for this question but it's the best I could find.

Can someone please explain to me what an htaccess file is? One appeared magically on my webspace today and directed visitors off site. I have removed it, but have no idea how it happened or what I should do about it.

Apparently, the server where you site is hosted is running Apache. It could be that the file was generated by the server admin.
If you search google for htaccess, you'll see a lot of sites explaining it.
http://cooletips.de/htaccess/
That site contains a htaccess file generator.

Yes, thanks. I'm not being lazy - I just have trouble understanding a lot of sites' explanations! I found out what one was. What I can't figure out is who or what put it there and how I can prevent it happening again. The host support people said it was 'probably automatically generated'. This I still don't understand.

First thing that comes to mind is the website where it was being directed to. I suppose one could assume that if you were "hacked" and somebody intentionally directed your visitors to another site the first place I'd look at is the site they were directed to.

It didn't 'go' anywhere though - just created a 'page error' notice - the same as the one you get when you try for a URL that's been disabled.

I believe the hosting service when they say it was probably automatically generated. Has it happened again? I would just wait to see what happens.

Not so far but I'm keeping an eye on it (we've got a big event on Saturday. I'd really like the club members to be able to get details!) Generated by what though, and for why?

The site I posted has a htaccess generator and if you look at the options, you'll see the various uses it has, one of which is authentication. Based on that, I assume that the hosting server uses such a generator, for the same reasons.

Yes, I saw that and went to wikipedia which stated...

In computer security, authentication is the process of attempting to verify the digital identity of the sender of a communication such as a request to log in. The sender being authenticated may be a person using a computer, a computer itself or a computer program.

... and couldn't see why the host would want to do that or that they'd do it by a means which denied access to the entire site to all comers. Sorry, still don't get it.