This is a technical question about what would happen if one adds a 512MB memory expansion module to the HP Color LaserJet CP5225, or any other recent current modern Laserjet, while the manual states that the maximum supported memory module size is 256mb.

The manual states that the maximum supported memory is 256mb DDR2 SO-DIMM. What does supported mean in here? Does it mean that the printer can only see 256mb extra? Or does it mean that the printer will malfunction if more ram is inserted?

In other words, will the printer see, recognise and use the first 256mb portion correctly, of an inserted 512mb expansion module?

There are better faster cheaper 512mb ram modules from known brands, while the availability of 128mb and 256mb are dying and made by unknown expensive brands. Hence the question: "must stick to 256mb spec" or "more is okay but will just not be used".

Interesting related background article: Would upgrading RAM in a HP LaserJet printer improve its performance?

#<IfModule mod_headers.c>
    Header unset Pragma
    FileETag None
    Header unset ETag
    ExpiresActive On
    <FilesMatch "\\.(ico|jpg..)$">
        etc
    </FilesMatch>
#</IfModule>

#<ifmodule mod_php4.c>
    php_value zlib.output_compression 16386
#</ifmodule>

Fellow Folks, Am I allowed to comment those IfModule stuff, as I am not planning to change for the coming whatever years and I am in no terms willing to change Apache for IIS or anything else in the universe.

In other words: whats the actual use of those ifModule stuff? Your enlightening suggestions or answers are much appreciated on this topic.

I'm trying to delete a file on the server but the PHP is still busy on it and wont let me delete it... FTP says SORRY cant do:

> DELE ml.txt
< 550 ml.txt: Permission denied
> PORT 190,028,4,31,129,100

and

> SITE CHMOD 777 ml.txt
< 550 ml.txt: Operation not permitted

What to do, in order to kill the process or delete the file?

Some questions on the absolute, optimal usage of caching of dynamic and static cache.

Currently, my htaccess is setup as below, and I have the feeling im not really using it the correct way... Any of your improvement-suggestions I see as answers! Much appreciated!

Question1: any suggestions as to what I should change, in order to make caching more correct within the two levels ( #### dynamic / #### static)

Question 2: what does these IF tags do: <IfModule mod_headers.c> ... </IfModule>
Is it advisable to keep or not? Without it seems to also work. Are there speed advantages using this?

Question 3: Should I use both ExpiresDefault M7200 and Header set Cache-Control "max-age=7200" or will either one do?

<IfModule mod_headers.c>

    ExpiresActive On
    Header unset ETag
    FileETag None
    Header unset Pragma
    ExpiresDefault M14515200

    ##### DYNAMIC PAGES
    <FilesMatch "\\.(htm|php)$">
        ExpiresDefault M7200
        Header set Cache-Control "max-age=7200"
    </FilesMatch>

    ##### STATIC FILES
    <FilesMatch "\\.(ico|jpg|png|gif|svg|swf|css|js|fon|ttf|eot|xml|pdf|flv)$">
        ExpiresDefault M14515200
        Header set Cache-Control "max-age=14515200"
    </FilesMatch>

</IfModule>

when setting my redirects in htaccess, i have trouble setting/combining various domains when they all go to the same homepage. I can do them separate, but that isn't neat/elegant. How to rewrite the third paragraph sothat it works?

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^website.de$    // works fine
RewriteRule ^$ de/home [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^website.fr$    // works fine
RewriteRule ^$ fr/home [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^website.com$    // doesnt work well
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^website.org$    // doesnt work well
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^website.net$    // doesnt work well
RewriteRule ^$ en/home [R=301,L]

Q1. is it possible to further optimize / compact the following rules, thereby making the entire redirections faster and easier to maintain in future? There are about twenty of these domains!! you get the picture of my problem! Thanks very much for any and all clues +1

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^website.com$
RewriteRule ^$ en/home [R=301]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^website.de$
RewriteRule ^$ de/home [R=301]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^website.fr$
RewriteRule ^$ fr/home [R=301]

etc etc etc
Q2. should I chain these rules like putting [C] at end or ??

Q3. is this the proper fashion of redirecting from search engine point of view?

after becoming aware of the major lag that hits my site becaouse of the homepage redirect, i read into numerous optimization threads, proving that a 301 redirect slams out approximately 100ms to a staggering 400ms out of the total load time. On my website its around 250ms. Silly i know! On the other hand i really do need a redirect to the default language, because other domains for the different languages. What i have works, but wastest 250ms every single time.

Is there anyway this can done be faster?
Through htaccess rewrite perhaps?

CURRENTLY HAVE index.php

<?php
switch($_SERVER["HTTP_HOST"]){
case "site.org":
    header('HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently');
    header('Location: /en/home');   # extensio .php is hidden: 'home' is a file

case "site.fr":
    header('HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently');
    header('Location: /fr/home');   # extensio .php is hidden: 'home' is a file
etc etc
?>

I HAVE TRIED
Simply including home that works for the first homepage beautifully, BUT the url in the browser is in this way NOT set to site.org/en/home you just see the site.org and all links then dont work anymore. What i need is that the homepage loads AND the url in the browser becomes /xx/home

Any and all clues are very appreciated +1

I have only acces to the php.ini file and my good old .htaccess file.

Where do I enable the Keep Alive setting?

( Im on a plesk 8.2 )

I hope this is a simple YES or NO answer (please specify why)

Q1: Does it matter in which order rules are placed in htaccess?
Especially when they are completely separated items.

Q2: If yes, am I applying the right order?
I want to to speed up the htacces engine and not overload it with unneccessary rules.

Q3. Any tips as are welcome about what to remove/add.
Thanks!

# DirectoryIndex index.php /index.php
AddDefaultCharset UTF-8
RewriteEngine on
# Options All
# Options +FollowSymLinks
# Options +FollowSymLinks -Indexes -ExecCGI
# RewriteBase /

#####################################################

<IfModule mod_headers.c>
    ExpiresActive On
    ExpiresDefault M172800
    Header unset ETag
    FileETag None
    Header unset Pragma

    ##### STATIC FILES
    <FilesMatch "\\.(ico|jpg|png|gif|svg|swf|css|js|fon|ttf|eot|xml|pdf|flv)$">
        ExpiresDefault M1209600
        Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=1209600"
    </FilesMatch>

    ##### DYNAMIC PAGES
    <FilesMatch "\\.(php)$">
        ExpiresDefault M604800
        Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=604800"
    </FilesMatch>
</IfModule>

#####################################################

#  /page123 and /page123/ will all go to /page123.php
RewriteRule ^(.+)/$  /$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.php

####################################################
    
# NO WWW   http://www. becomes always http://
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.+)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://%1/$1 [R=301,L]

##############################################################
# add own extensions that will be interpreted as php
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
AddType image/svg+xml svg svgz
AddType text/css css
AddType text/javascript js
AddEncoding gzip svgz

##############################################################

ErrorDocument 500 /
ErrorDocument 404 /

in order to speed up my website and php pages, i use compression my php pages currently fetch text, create thumbnails etc. Currently these two compression paragraphs are at the very bottom of my htaccess file. Should the both be there? Is this code correct?

What value is best for the zlib to go in my htaccess? I guese 16386 is default and equals to 16k or 16K . What if one puts there 2M ? Will that make php processing or page loading any faster? are there any other options one might add there except the number 16386? Any and all advices are welcome and honoured +1!

# preserve bandwidth for PHP enabled servers
<ifmodule mod_php4.c>
    php_value zlib.output_compression 16386
</ifmodule>

# compress speficic filetypes
<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
<FilesMatch "\.(js|css|eot|ttf|fon|svg|xml|ast|php)$">
    SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
</FilesMatch>
</IfModule>

I am rewriting php generated thumbnails with igly urls into nice ones. instead of img.php?src=bla.jpg&w=200&h=100 the static filenames IMG-file_w200_h100.jpg

Because the rewrite is so complex and involves many variations, only urls starting with IMG- should be listening to the rewrite rule. The conditional first rule however doesnt seem to work: if i change it into IMF or something else, it still fires the rewrite rules! Any ideas as to why the conditional doesnt work?

# Rewrite imgcpu?src= thumbnail maker to nice static urls
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^IMG.*$
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_w(.+)_h(.+)_f(.+).jpg$ imgcpu\?src=$1\.jpg&w=$2&h=$3&f=$4 [L]
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_w(.+)_q(.+).jpg$ imgcpu\?src=$1\.jpg&w=$2&q=$3 [L]
etc

this is a pain in the ass-problem!! Given: most proxies, do not cache resources with a "?" in their URL even if a Cache-control: public header is present in the response. To enable proxy caching for these resources, i have removed query strings from references to static resources, at the expence of very ugly apache regex code!*

Part 1 DONE with clues from two geniuses Dennis Williamson & Mark Henderson
Part 2 HERE this question covers part II: making the code elegant and less tidious

PREVIOUSLY HAD

 <img src="/imgcpu?src=folder1/some_funny_kitty.jpg&w=3500&h=10&c=p&q=90" />
 <img src="/imgcpu?src=folder3/camels_ride_on_birds.jpg&w=200&h=500&f=bw&q=10" />
 <img src="/imgcpu?src=folder3/clay_loves_frogs.jpg&h=200" />

NOW WORKING

<img src="/IMG-folder1/some_funny_kitty_w3500_h10_cp_q90.jpg" />
<img src="/IMG-folder3/camels_ride_on_birds_w200_h500_fbw_q10.jpg" />
<img src="/IMG-folder3/clay_loves_frogs_h200.jpg" />

AT THE COST OF THIS UN-ELEGANT CODE

# Rewrite imgcpu?src= thumbnail maker to nice static urls
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^IMG.*$
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_w(.+)_h(.+)_c(.+)_f(.+)_q(.+).jpg$ imgcpu\?src=$1\.jpg&w=$2&h=$3&c=$4&f=$5&q=$6 [L]
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_w(.+)_h(.+)_c(.+)_f(.+).jpg$ imgcpu\?src=$1\.jpg&w=$2&h=$3&c=$4&f=$5 [L]
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_w(.+)_h(.+)_c(.+)_q(.+).jpg$ imgcpu\?src=$1\.jpg&w=$2&h=$3&c=$4&q=$5 [L]
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_w(.+)_h(.+)_c(.+).jpg$ imgcpu\?src=$1\.jpg&w=$2&h=$3&c=$4 [L]
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_w(.+)_h(.+)_f(.+).jpg$ imgcpu\?src=$1\.jpg&w=$2&h=$3&f=$4 [L]
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_w(.+)_h(.+)_q(.+).jpg$ imgcpu\?src=$1\.jpg&w=$2&h=$3&q=$4 [L]
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_w(.+)_h(.+).jpg$ imgcpu\?src=$1\.jpg&w=$2&h=$3 [L]
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_w(.+).jpg$ imgcpu\?src=$1\.jpg&w=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_h(.+).jpg$ imgcpu\?src=$1\.jpg&h=$3 [L]
+ many many other combinations etcettera!

notes: 1) imgcpu.php?src= can be modified if needed. 2) images will always be in one folder deep, never deeper 3) all files will end with .jpg after wich the delimiters start IMG-folder1/some_file_w100_h200.jpg (nice static .jpg url)
imgcpu?src=folder1/some_file.jpg&w=100&h=200 (ugly file url)

I found these somewhere at the end of my htaccess file, from a time in history where I was in a mood of just adding as much as i could to my htaccess, now wishing the opposite: to remove everything thats unneeded from it, to make my site faster.

Q1 Whats the function of these?
Q2 Will my site become faster if i would delete these?

Options All
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteBase /

BrowserMatch "MSIE" brokenvary=1
BrowserMatch "Mozilla/4.[0-9]{2}" brokenvary=1
BrowserMatch "Opera" !brokenvary
SetEnvIf brokenvary 1 force-no-vary[/i]

my php-generated thumbnail files and combined javascript and css files (all having their expiration dates anc cache=public set etc) return the full content sometimes, other times they load from proxy cache!

This is the comment that redbot.org gives, sometimes:

An If-Modified-Since conditional request returned the full content unchanged.

*HTTP allows clients to make conditional requests to see if a copy that they hold is still valid. Since this response has a Last-Modified header, clients should be able to use an If-Modified-Since request header for validation. RED has done this and found that the resource sends a full response even though it hadn't changed, indicating that it doesn't support Last-Modified validation.**

the PHP thumbnail generator header

header ("Content-type: image/jpeg");
header ("Last-Modified: " . gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s", time() - 404800000)." GMT");
header ("Expires: " . gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s", time() + 2419200) . " GMT");
header ("Cache-Control: public, max-age=2419200");

htaccess

<IfModule mod_headers.c>
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresDefault M172800

##### DEFAULT EXPIRES
<FilesMatch "\\.(ico|jpg|png|gif|svg|swf|css|js|fon|xml|pdf|flv)$">
    ExpiresDefault M1209600
    Header set Cache-Control "max-age=1209600, public"
</FilesMatch>

##### DYNAMIC PAGES
<FilesMatch "\\.(php|cgi|pl)$">
    ExpiresDefault M7200
    Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=7200"
</FilesMatch>

Header unset Pragma
Header unset ETag
Header unset Last-Modified
FileETag None
</IfModule>

Update: New Info:

google SpeedTest gives 91/100 score on the top it says: and list all the files except the php generated files that have a explicit expire header set ((which still return full content!??) it says:

The following resources are missing a cache validator. Resources that do not specify a cache validator cannot be refreshed efficiently. Specify a Last-Modified or ETag header to enable cache validation for the following resources.

How to downgrade a 120mbit line (our current connection) temporary to a 10mbit to test what our potential clients with less speedy internet are experiencing as the website loads?

At this moment everything loads in less than a second: For us there is now No Way to EXPERIENCE the built up of the pages visually as a user. Ive searched the plugin directory of FireFox over and over but nothing I could find there. Any and all tips are welcome!

UPDATE

yeah would be nice though to just have some firefox plugin, you know,, where you can set the maximum virtual kbit, that way you can even experience how a person with 56K would experience. NOT that anyperson in the world would use that now, but just to dive into nostalgia for a minute and feel the internet experience of ten years ago (or a far far away user from other side of the world visiting your server... very handy to limit the speed to, say 1 Mbit.

this is a pain in the ass-problem! Whicever genius solves this riddle will receive paypal donation to eat diner for two. Now lets get started. Given: most proxies, do not cache resources with a "?" in their URL even if a Cache-control: public header is present in the response. To enable proxy caching for these resources, i have to remove query strings from references to static resources, and instead encode the parameters into the file names themselves.*

PREVIOUSLY HAD

 <img src="/imgcpu?src=folder1/photo_citty.jpg&w=3500&h=10&c=p&q=90" />
 <img src="/imgcpu?src=folder2/photo_doggy.jpg&w=100&h=200&c=p" />
 <img src="/imgcpu?src=folder3/photo_birds.jpg&w=200&h=500&f=bw" />
 <img src="/imgcpu?src=folder3/photo_frogs.jpg&h=200" />

NOW WORKING

<img src"/IMG-folder/photo_w100_h100_cf_q60.jpg"/>

• The images will reside in 1 folder deep on the root (never deeper)
• the img.php?src= or img?src= will be consistently named this forever
• after the ....jpg &w,&h,&q,&m, &f and &c are the only letters that call for variables (e.g.: &w=200&h&=50&c=p&f=bw&q=90) but all should be optional

AT THE COST OF THIS UN-ELEGANT CODE

# Rewrite imgcpu?src= thumbnail maker to nice static urls
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^IMG.*$
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_w(.+)_h(.+)_c(.+)_q(.+).jpg$ imgcpu\?src=$1\.jpg&w=$2&h=$3&c=$4&q=$5 [L]
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_w(.+)_h(.+)_c(.+)_f(.+)_q(.+).jpg$ imgcpu\?src=$1\.jpg&w=$2&h=$3&c=$4&f=$5&q=$6 [L]
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_w(.+)_h(.+)_c(.+)_f(.+).jpg$ imgcpu\?src=$1\.jpg&w=$2&h=$3&c=$4&f=$5 [L]
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_w(.+)_h(.+)_c(.+)_q(.+).jpg$ imgcpu\?src=$1\.jpg&w=$2&h=$3&c=$4&q=$5 [L]
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_w(.+)_h(.+)_c(.+).jpg$ imgcpu\?src=$1\.jpg&w=$2&h=$3&c=$4 [L]
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_w(.+)_h(.+)_f(.+).jpg$ imgcpu\?src=$1\.jpg&w=$2&h=$3&f=$4 [L]
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_w(.+)_h(.+).jpg$ imgcpu\?src=$1\.jpg&w=$2&h=$3 [L]
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_w(.+).jpg$ imgcpu\?src=$1\.jpg&w=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_h(.+).jpg$ imgcpu\?src=$1\.jpg&h=$3 [L]

However, endless other possibilities are still uncovered: e.g. doesnt cover the cases where first the height is given the width etc No this shall not work! How can I redirect OPTIONALLY ALL parameter? &w= or &h= with something like &[a-z]=(.*) sothat _h or _w or _m are all universal and optional and when given intervepted by the rewritten, proxy friendly urls?

So the assignment Now is:
Rewrite any or all of the queries that follow [photo123.jpg]&[a-z]=(.*)&[a-z]=(.*)etcettera into photo123_X-x_Y-y(optionally more queries).jpg

Visualise a three step jump sporting event, with the first two steps perfect in place and the third step launching into air, never coming back and eventually a crash! That is what this question boils down to :)

STEP 1:WORKS serve /somepage?ln=xx when user navigates to /xx/somepage.

# if user inputs nice urls /xx/somepage  to serve page /someapge?ln=xx
RewriteRule ^([a-z][a-z])/(.*) /$2?ln=$1 [L]

STEP 2:WORKS go to the homepage when only language is given /xx/

# if language xx given but no page given? then redirect to its home /xx/home
RewriteRule ^([a-z][a-z])/?$ /$1/home [R=301,L]

STEP 3:CRASH

# if user inputs /somepage then redirect to default english: /en/somepage
# if user inputs /somepage?ln=xx redirect to nice url /xx/somepage
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/../ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /en/$1 [R=301,L]

The third rule is where we are stuck... PS: The redirection should work both for extensionless files somepage?ln=xx as well as files with extension somepage.abc?ln=xx where the extension can be any 2 or 3 char-word, or if easier, checked manually with the following extensions i use [.php .uu .u3c .vls]

Thanks a Thousand!

a question that is now partially resolved. A genius who can speak Apache fluently can shine light into this matter...

GIVEN: Most proxies, do not cache resources with a "?" in their URL even if a Cache-control: public header is present in the response. To enable proxy caching for these resources, i have to remove query strings from references to static resources, and instead encode the parameters into the file names themselves.*

CURRENTLY HAVE

 <img src="/imgcpu?src=folder1/photo_citty.jpg&w=3500&h=10&c=p&q=90" />
 <img src="/imgcpu?src=folder2/photo_doggy.jpg&w=100&h=200&c=p" />
 <img src="/imgcpu?src=folder3/photo_birds.jpg&w=200&h=500&f=bw" />
 <img src="/imgcpu?src=folder3/photo_frogs.jpg&w=200&f=bw" />

WOULD LIKE

 <img src="/IMG-folder1/photo_citty.jpg_w3500_h10_cp_q90" />
 <img src="/IMG-folder2/photo_doggy.jpg_w100_h200_cp" />
 <img src="/IMG-folder3/photo_birds.jpg_w200_h500_cs_fbw" />
 <img src="/IMG-folder3/photo_frogs.jpg_w200_fbw" />

• The images will reside in 1 folder deep on the root (never deeper)
• the img.php?src= or img?src= will be consistently named this forever

I know the "img?src=" is a bad part and have already handled with that:

# Rewrite imgcpu?src= thumbnail maker to nice static urls
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.*) /imgcpu?src=$1 [L]

But the rest im stuck at. any and all clues are greatly welcome. Thanks.

PROGRESS
IMG-folder1/photo_citty.jpg&w=3500&h=10&c=p&q=90 WORKS
IMG-folder1/photo_citty.jpg_w-3500_h-10_c-p_q-90 DOESNT WORK
IMG-folder1/photo_citty_w-3500_h-10_c-p_q-90.jpg DOESNT WORK

RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_w-(.+)_h-(.+)_c-(.+)$ imgcpu\?src=$1&w=$2&h=$3&c=$4 [L]
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_w-(.+)_h-(.+)_f-(.+)$ imgcpu\?src=$1&w=$2&h=$3&f=$4 [L]   
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_w-(.+)_h-(.+)$ imgcpu\?src=$1&w=$2&h=$3 [L]
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_w-(.+)$ imgcpu\?src=$1&w=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_h-(.+)$ imgcpu\?src=$1&h=$3 [L]
# pfff endless possibilities!!

And this doesnt even cover the cases where first the height is given the width. No this shall not work!

Lets find a solution to redirect all OPTIONAL &w= or &h= with something like &[a-z]=(.*) sothat _h- or _w- are universal and doesnt matter what letter is there _c- or _q- anything could then fit. THAT would be a very welcome rewrite.

Meanwhile this does works!!

<img src"/IMG-folder/photo_w100_h100_cf_q60.jpg"/>

by using:

RewriteRule ^IMG-(.+)_w(.+)_h(.+)_c(.+)_q(.+).jpg$ 
            imgcpu\?src=$1\.jpg&w=$2&h=$3&c=$4&q=$5 [L]

So the assignment Now is:
Rewrite any or all of the queries that follow [photo123.jpg]&[a-z]=(.*)&[a-z]=(.*)etcettera into photo123_X-x_Y-y(optionally more queries).jpg

Hey All, a question about mod-rewrite. When user inputs /somepage?ln=xx my server loads invisibly /xx/somepage which is much a beautiful url.

BUT, those ugly pages still reappear cached and i just wish them to permanently redirect to the nice urls. so they would disappear and only beautifull urls would remain.

/somepage?ln=xx should permanently 301 redirect to /xx/somepage which then would load invisibly the page without showing ugly url. When no language is set, assume english: /somepage should redirect to /en/somepage

In both cases,the file extension should be optional (e.g. should work with and without various extensions) .php .htm .pag, in other words all 3-char-extensions should work too, if those urls have them).

/contact?ln=xx or /contact.zzz?ln=xx
should go both to /xx/contact
language is only 2-chars. What i now have:

# make language as a /lang/page like /xx/contact  WORKS
RewriteRule ^([a-z][a-z])/(.*) /$2?ln=$1 [L]

# when no page, only language set, go to root /nl or /nl/  WORKS
RewriteRule ^([a-z][a-z])/?$ /$1/home [R=301,L]

# permanently redirect ugly urls to nice ones, so the ugly ones dissappear
RewriteRule ???

am trying to write a redirect but as a green noob is tougher than i tought. What i want is: on the condition that there are No Specific Page in the url, but the language IS set, it to redirect to the home page of that language. First ill tell you the nature of current working site and the apache code that achieves that:

/it/somepage goes nicely /somepage?ln=it
/de/somepage goes nicely /somepage?ln=de
/fr/somepage goes nicely /somepage?ln=fr
/cn/somepage goes nicely /somepage?ln=cn

# WORKS beautifully
RewriteRule ^zh-CN/(.*) /$1?ln=zh-CN [L]
RewriteRule ^cn/(.*) /$1?ln=zh-CN [L]
RewriteRule ^([a-z][a-z])/(.*) /$2?ln=$1 [L]

Here, the 3rd line is the default redirect. The ast and 2nd line make the exception for chinese language correcty go to /cn/somepage

HOWEVER

the above code gives error when the root is asked:
/it/ gives error 404
/it gives error 404
/de/ gives error 404
/de gives error 404

/xx should go to /xx/home?ln=xx
/xx/ should go to /xx/home?ln=xx

this is all on the condition that no /xx/certainpage is set, ofcourse! Thanks for any clues!