Securing my web site

[aircombat]

I want to host a new website on Apache.
I have however not much knoledge of Apache and would like to know what exactly .htaccess and .htpass does ?
I would also like to know how do I go about setting the permissions.
I would also like to get some knoledge on the Cpanel and how to use it.

[lilovirus]

.htaccess and .htpasswd allows you to password protect your web content.
This will allow you to put your file on webserver and when you try to access these file it will ask you for a user name and password.

To secure your website you will have to secure your server, not only apache web server but also the whole system and you need to monitor what all is running on the system.

even if your Apache is secure, other process may not be secure those might have vulnerabilities. so try to put only trusted software on that server.

[gary4gar]

Make sure you read this --> http://www.petefreitag.com/item/505.cfm

then, Try these
http://www.google.com/search?q=LAMP+security
http://www.google.com/search?q=LAMP+secure
http://www.google.com/search?q=make+Apache+secure