ok i just read again, found the htaccess.txt. I think I get it now. My question though is do I copy what I have in my existing HT accross to new one?

thanks for that but I am just having trouble understanding faqs. It says:

For apache, set your \".htaccess\" file like this:
##
# @version $Id: htaccess.txt 2368 2006-02-14 17:40:02Z stingrey $
# @package Joomla
# @copyright Copyright (C) 2005 Open Source Matters. All rights reserved.
# @license www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html GNU/GPL
# Joomla! is Free Software
##
#####################################################
# READ THIS COMPLETELY IF YOU CHOOSE TO USE THIS FILE
#
# The line just below this section: 'Options FollowSymLinks' may

and on and on, surely I don't put all this copy into my .htaccess file? Thers is a section further down:

#RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
#RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
#RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(/component/option,com) [NC,OR] ##optional - see notes##
#RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (/|\.htm|\.php|\.html|/[^.]*)$ [NC]
#RewriteRule ^(content/|component/) index.php

Is this the section I put into the .htaccess?

Currently my .htaccess file has the following in it:

[color=#FF0000]#-FrontPage-

IndexIgnore .htaccess */.??* *~ *# */HEADER* */README* */_vti*


order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from all


order deny,allow
deny from all

AuthName site.com
AuthUserFile /home/wwwsite/public_html/_vti_pvt/service.pwd
AuthGroupFile /home/wwwsite/public_html/_vti_pvt/service.grp
php_value upload_max_filesize 10M[/color]

I installed sef but ended up receiving an error 404 on every link other than the home page. urghh.
I searched forum and found related issue but no fix that I could understand (newbie) and as I have to launch the site in a few days I decided to just uninstall sef. Problem now is I am still getting the 404 error.

Would really appreciate any feedback