.htaccess

[leenm]

My understanding is that you can put htaccess into other than the root directory and it will apply to that subdirectory and any directories lower.

That's right. (http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/howto/h...s.html#how)

The .htaccess is also needed to prevent direct access to the xml files. So you want the .htaccess file, because it's protecting your data. (eg login info)