Where do I upload an .htaccess file on a shared hosting account? - .htaccess

Question

I am a novice with server side coding so bear with me if the answer is obvious to some:
I designed the front end of a website sometime ago. It resides in a shared hosting environment as a subdirectory. I am trying to upload an .htaccess file in order to redirect to its mobile version ( that I did not design and that is hosted on another account). I have tried uploading the .htaccess file to both the root directory and the subdirectory and each have their issues.
When I upload to the root the redirect does not occur on any devices. It was not my wish but I was expecting that all websites under the root would be redirected to the mobile version of this one site but nothing occurred.
When I upload the .htaccess file to the subdirectory - viewing from all devices returns "The page you requested is NOT AVAILABLE"
The following code is what I was provided by the mobile designers to input into the .htaccess file:
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
#Check if this is the desktop to mobile query string
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (|&)m=1(&|$)
#Set a cookie, and skip the next 2 rules
RewriteRule – [CO=mredir:1:%{HTTP_HOST},S=2]
#Check if this is the mobile to desktop query string
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (|&)m=0(&|$)
#Set a cookie, and skip the next rule
RewriteRule – [CO=mredir:0:%{HTTP_HOST},S]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT}
“android|blackberry|iphone|ipod|iemobile|opera
mobile|palmos|webos|googlebot-mobile” [NC]
#Check if we’re not already on the mobile site
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !m\.
#Can not read and write cookie in same request, must duplicate condition
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !(|&)m=0(&|$)
#Check to make sure we haven’t set the cookie before
RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !^.mredir=0.$ [NC]
#allow mobile sites to access images on the main site
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.(gif|png|jpe?g|ico)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://example.mobi/ [L,R=301]
</IfModule>
I have ommitted the url that would replace http://example.mobi
I cannot detect if there are any syntax errors in the above code, any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Answer 1

It's just my guessing. But why do you urge to use .htaccess for simple redirects? If only one site (particular subdirectory on you root / hosting) should always redirect to new, mobile version, then why can't you set a permanent redirect using your server / hosting configuration?
Such tools are in nearly every control panel like cPanel, DirectAdmin etc. Even if your hosting provider runs its own, sophisticated piece of software for running and managing hosting server, I can hardly believe it that it not provide you with any tool or solution for making permanent redirects and thus forcing you to play this game with .htaccess.
BTW: If you 100% sure that you can't do this via server / hosting configuration, and .htaccess is the only way, than maybe this is the right moment to change your hosting? After all, domain / address / URL is the most important for each project, and it can be hosted on any hosting.
As for your problem, I would advice to run second scenario (.htaccess in subfolder) from a regular PC or Linux and via browser equipped with FireBug or simillar developers tool. Then enter your webpage that should do the redirect, but fails, and carefully examine that tool's log / path to see, where you're actually redirected? Is this trully URL you've been expecting? Most times "The page you requested is NOT AVAILABLE" means what it means, that is -- a website tried to redirect your browser to an non-existing URL.