.htaccess

[eluser]Perkin5[/eluser]
I am developing a site locally using WAMP (windows xp) and using an .htaccess file to remove index.php from site URLs.

If I use the code provided at http://codeigniter.com/wiki/mod_rewrite/ it doesn't work. However, if I disable the third line (discovered by trial and error):

Code:

RewriteBase /

it works fine. I don't understand htaccess coding but can anyone explain in layman's terms why that should be?