Re: Mod_rewrite
The servers here are Lightspeed, not Apache, but the Lightspeed equivalent of mod_rewrite is enabled already.
You will need to use RewriteBase / after RewriteEngine On, though -- you're in a shared hosting environment, so writing local URLs outside of your path is forbidden.
“Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.” --Donald Knuth
"It was as if its architects were given a perfectly good hammer and gleefully replied, 'neat! With this hammer, we can build a tool that can pound in nails.'" -- Alex Papadimoulis (on TheDailyWTF.com)