Thank you for your time and such a comprehensive reply.

The default method adds another level of directory structure to URIs and from an SEO stance, the more levels of recursion to a URI, the less weight given to URIs bedded down in these layers.

If I want:

foo.com/fishing/salmon.html
foo.com ...

I set up with mod_rewrite on,m it worked, and changed only those two elements, then it did not function.

I cannot connect to the admin URI directly, no.

Is there a way to stick a post as the home page and only display that entry on the home page?

Also, how about categories? Is there a way to have a specific post be the "home page" of a category?

Thanks.

If I change the default permalinks from/to:

Archives: archives/%id%-%title%.html TO %title%.html
Categories: categories/%id%-%name% TO %name%

The site does not pick up the style sheets/looks unformatted and I am unable to login to admin. and need to reinstall the program again.

How can I change ...