htaccess or nsconfig, which one to use?

Hi,

On the server from my provider, i see 2 files htaccess and nsconfig?!?. To my idea it is htaccess for apache and nsconfig for , euhh well forgot it, but not apache servers.

So which-one should I use? I tried already htaccess and the following works well:

IndexIgnore *
Options -Indexes
ErrorDocument 400 /error.htm

But when it comes to
<Files *.gif>
order allow,deny
deny from all
allow from .mysite.com
</Files>

In various forms, it denies all

When I try to disable a directory I even get server 500 errors?

RewriteEngine on? nothing!

Password protection, works well!

What should I do in order to take advantage of htaccess or nsconfig

Thanks for Your idea,
Jerome

read the apache error log to find out what the server500 errors were..
mod_rewrite may not be installed.. are you sure you're using the proper syntax for whatever version of Apache that's on the server for your directory protection?