Permalink Problem

My .htaccess file doesn’t show up under the templates menu at the moment because my blog is actually installed in a different directory vaguely.org/wordpress, to my /blog directory.
I have previously tried putting my .htaccess file in the /blog directory, and in the /wordpress directory, and neither work.
There is a htaccess file in my root directory (ie vaguely.org/.htaccess) which is the empty one I was just talking about. I’ve tried putting the code in there too and that doesn’t work.
Someone previously advised me to put my .htaccess in the /blog directory and delete any other .htaccess files that might be located in any other location, including /wordpress and the root directory, but I can’t delete the one in my root directory, it won’t let me.
This is the code I have at the moment:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /blog/
RewriteRule ^archives/category/(.*)/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /wordpress/wp-feed.php?category_name=$1&feed=$2 [QSA]
RewriteRule ^archives/category/?(.*) /blog/index.php?category_name=$1 [QSA]
RewriteRule ^archives/author/(.*)/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /wordpress/wp-feed.php?author_name=$1&feed=$2 [QSA]
RewriteRule ^archives/author/?(.*) /blog/index.php?author_name=$1 [QSA]
RewriteRule ^archives/([0-9]{4})?/?([0-9]{1,2})?/?([0-9]{1,2})?/?([_0-9a-z-]+)?/?([0-9]+)?/?$ /blog/index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&day=$3&name=$4&page=$5 [QSA]
RewriteRule ^archives/([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/([_0-9a-z-]+)/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /wordpress/wp-feed.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&day=$3&name=$4&feed=$5 [QSA]
RewriteRule ^archives/([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/([_0-9a-z-]+)/trackback/?$ /wordpress/wp-trackback.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&day=$3&name=$4 [QSA]
RewriteRule ^feed/?([_0-9a-z-]+)?/?$ /wordpress/wp-feed.php?feed=$1 [QSA]
RewriteRule ^comments/feed/?([_0-9a-z-]+)?/?$ /wordpress/wp-feed.php?feed=$1&withcomments=1 [QSA]
(I’ve tried removing the trailing slash).

Yep, blog files are in /wordpress and index.php is in /blog, that’s right.
Have now put the .htaccess file in /blog and deleted the one in /wordpress.
But it still isn’t working.
I think the other .htaccess file is interfering. But I can’t get rid of it!

Do you mean that when you access your web server via FTP, you can see the .htaccess file, but can’t delete it?

Yes, that’s exactly what I mean!

Wow, I think this is starting to fall under the “contact your server’s support” category. Sorry.

I’ve contacted them before to get them to give my account AllowOverrideAll authority, which they say they’ve done. I’ve thought about contacting them again but I’m not sure they really understand what the problem is. Not sure of the best way to explain it, bearing in mind they probably aren’t familiar with WP.

Yeah, but they should be familiar with what WP is trying to do.

I finally fixed the problem last week!!! Just thought I’d say, in case anyone else was experiencing something like this. It was nothing at all to do with my server.
For some odd reason I was using
<?php the_content(‘text’,no_teaser,’file’); ?>
instead of
<?php the_content(); ?>
which is what was screwing it up, and explains why permalinks weren’t working, even with the index.php/archives….. structure.
If you’re having the same probs, check your template against the default WP template and see if anything differs. Sounds obvious, but there you are.