How To Do Apache Aliasing

Hello all. I have a question that pertains to Apache Aliases. I have read multiple upon multiple info on this and I am still confused. Guru wisdom is much appreciated. My question is, what is the difference between these two was of aliasing? I have added both my local (WIN-XP) and remote (LAMP) aliases. I am also wondering if my <Directory>...</Directory> attributes are correct.

1. Adding within .htaccess file like -

Local -	Alias /EmpireManager C:/apache2triad/htdocs/EmpireManager
Remote - Alias /EmpireManager /var/www/path/to/EmpireManager

Code (markup):

2. Adding into httpd.conf file like -

Local -	Alias /EmpireManager/ "C:/apache2triad/htdocs/clients/EmpireManager/"

	<Directory "C:/apache2triad/htdocs/clients/EmpireManager">
	    Options Indexes MultiViews
	    AllowOverride None
	    Order allow,deny
	    Allow from all
	</Directory>

Remote - Alias /EmpireManager/ "/var/www/path/to/EmpireManager/"

	<Directory "/var/www/path/to/EmpireManager">
	    Options Indexes MultiViews
	    AllowOverride None
	    Order allow,deny
	    Allow from all
	</Directory>

Code (markup):

When using the httpd.conf method locally Apache will not start with <Directory>...</Directory>. If i comment it out Apache works but Aliasing does not.

 

Alias Directive is a complement of the:
DocumentRoot
Alias is parsed first before the <Directory>...</Directory>.

Example:
you have www.somesite.com.

and your 
DocumentRoot is "C:\websites"
and your images is stored:
"C:\images"

So you will declare:

DocumentRoot is "C:\websites"
Alias "/images/" "C:\images"

so when you visit your site:

somesite.com/images/

it will show the images on "C:\images" even though you dont have images folder under "C:\websites".

Code (markup):

This directive is used to specify certain
additional settings for that certain directory declared within the parameter.
<Directory>
.....
</Directory>


Hope It Helps