How to protect .htaccess Files ?

[tlwwolfseye]

Thats one of the things I tried, doesn?t work. I can still directly access the File in the Browser. Thats why I wonder.

This is my .htaccess File, or lets say part of it. Would be too many Bans in it to post here.

php_value memory_limit 64M
php_value upload_max_filesize 50M
php_value max_execution_time 900

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?://(www\.)?mydomain.com [NC]
RewriteRule \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif)$ http://www.mydomain/hotlink.jpg [NC,R,L]

ErrorDocument 403 /error/403.html
ErrorDocument 404 /error/403.html

<Files .htaccess>
order allow,deny
deny from all
</Files>

<Files *>
Order deny,allow

# Mixed IP Ranges
deny from 203.223.32.0/20
deny from 41.200.0.0/16
deny from 59.148.209.80/30
deny from 94.247.2.0/23
deny from 194.8.74.0/23
deny from 87.118.96.0/19
deny from 87.118.64.0/18
deny from 213.155.0.0/19
deny from 212.95.32.0/19
deny from 221.120.192.0/18
deny from 94.179.136.0/21
deny from 82.81.0.0/17
deny from 84.19.176.0/20
</files>